


White Rabbit

by Meh_forget_it



Series: Veles and Loki [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 05:39:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 38,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meh_forget_it/pseuds/Meh_forget_it
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been said that in order for a god to exist, he must be believed in. Harry defeated Voldemort and then disappeared. He became a legend over the years. And then became a God. With a whole world believing in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings – Slash. Explicit scenes of a sexual nature, historical references, scenes which may cause distress, scenes of abuse/torture/death, somewhat imaginative use of religion, strong language, SPOILERS FOR SEASON FIVE, Death. A lot of death. Loads of it. Oodles. Dead bodies for miles. Everywhere you look.
> 
> Oh, and Harry was born in 1582 in this. Just thought I should warn you of that. :D

Harry glanced down at the dead body of the man that had been haunting his steps since his birth. He could feel the weight being lifted off of his shoulders as he stared at Voldemort's body, but then looked up and saw the adoration in the eyes of those around him. He shuddered and knew that with the passing of one burden, this world would find a way to place even more upon him.

Gathering his magic around him, Harry cast one last glance at the body of the most feared Dark Lord of the sixteenth century and then disappeared.

What Harry didn't know however, was that even with his disappearance, those people he had strove to escape, kept their adoration of him. He became a legend told to the new generation and magic began to work. It only took ten years. Ten years before the legend became a God and Harry Potter ceased to exist, becoming Veles instead. The vengeful trickster god, God of Magic and Death. The protector God of departed souls and supposed watcher of the underworld.

It was told to naughty children that they should behave, or the God, Veles, would come and take them to his home in the underworld. And it wasn't long after that, that the people of the wizarding world began rituals to appease their God. And those that travelled spread the word of the almighty and powerful Veles. Until eventually, no one remembered Harry Potter, and Veles was never believed to have once been a young, scared boy in a new world of magic and danger.

* * *

**Ten years after the defeat of Voldemort**

Harry had been feeling a little out of sorts for nearing on four years now but no one had explanations for why. And now it all seemed to be coming towards some sort of conclusion that he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the end of.

Harry was hidden away in a small log cabin in Slovakia, hiding from the fearful muggles in the nearby village. Apparently having skin that appeared to glow a pale, sickly yellow in the dark, and bright lime green eyes wasn't normal and was, in fact, something to fear. Of course, that was the last of Harry's problems right now, however. He was more focused on the excruciating pain going through his body as he felt like each of his organs were shrivelling up, only to be regrown. One by one. He had long passed trying to hold back his screams and tears of pain and he was pretty sure that any silencing wards he had cast around the cabin, had fallen.

Harry gave another heart wrenching scream of pain as his heart gave a painful clench and then felt his vision blackout, whilst all he could hear was white noise. Until someone spoke to him, making him jerk, and then whimper at the added pain that movement caused.

 _"You have passed beyond being a legend to your people, little wizard saviour. The fates of all religions have stepped in to make you what they see you as,"_  The voice was hushed and made it difficult for Harry to decipher whether the owner of the voice was male or female. The voice, however, held a hidden power to it that made Harry's jaw ache.

"What's happening to me?" Harry asked out in a pained, quiet voice, arching his back as another wave of pain wracked through his body.

_"Hush now, Child of the Fates. Your body is being changed. Slowly your mortal flesh is being turned into pure magic, as is befitting for one of your status."_

"What?" Harry asked, whimpering at the pain in his body, and trying his hardest to focus on what the voice was trying to tell him.

_"Soon the one known as Harry Potter will fade from memory only to be replaced with whom you are becoming. You are to take your mantle as Veles, Trickster God of Magic and Death, and the protector of departed souls."_

"No!" Harry cried out, shaking his head in denial of what was to become of him, knowing, however, that it was futile.

_"It is too late, Veles. It has already happened. You are no longer human. Soon, you will be used to what you have been given and will learn how to help those that believe in you, and those that know of you but cannot believe."_

"I don't want…"

_"It is too late. All that is left for you to do is accept it and then gift those you deem worthy, with your magic and protection."_

"Why me?" Harry whispered, tears running down his cheeks as he began to accept his fate, however reluctantly that may be.

 _"Who else could we entrust with this task? All one needs to happen, to become a god, is to have believers. You have a whole world believing in you. There was no other path for you,"_ Harry gave a small nod in acceptance and then arched and screamed when burning pain rushed through his body, changing every last cell left into solidified magic.

* * *

**Ninety years later**

Veles silently wandered through the streets of a magical shopping district in Rome, a little bored if anyone had bothered to ask him. His navy blue robes occasionally getting caught in the warm breeze and making people passing him turn to stare at his obvious otherworldly features.

Over the decades, he had come to accept what he was, or at least, he no longer whined about it unless he was having a particularly bad day and had imbibed enough alcohol for it to start having an affect on him. It was on those days that he wondered if a god could worship another being or country, as he truly considered worshipping whoever first came up with the idea to make whisky.

It was, in fact, for that reason that he was striding through the small town, heading towards the nearest bar to get drunk. It was coming up to the second turn of the century that he had lived through and he had just witnessed the end of his second large wizarding war, this one having had the unfortunate consequence of wiping out an entire species. Veles just wanted to drink enough to forget about what the people he had chosen to give magic to had done to one another, and to try to drown out the guilt that was eating him up inside.

Walking into the pub, he headed straight for the bar and sat down on rickety stool. As soon as the bartender saw him, he walked over, still cleaning a mug in his hands and looked at him expectantly.

"Whatever you have that is strongest, please," Veles told the man, and then let his head fall down onto the bar when the man in front of him nodded his head and turned to get him his drink.

"Whoo! Whatever is wrong in your life, surely it can't be bad enough to pickle your liver!" Veles turned his head to look at the man sitting by him. He had dirty blond hair and a cheeky smile on his face as he looked at Veles. More importantly he was powerful enough to make the hairs on the back of Veles neck stand up.

"How about genocide?" Veles asked the man dully, absently thanking the bartender when he passed him a drink that was smoking and hissing.

"Really? Huh, in that case, I'll have what he's having," the man stated and the bartender gaped at him, then shrugged and turned to make the drink for the second time. "So what's your name?"

"Why?" Veles asked suspiciously, looking at the man with narrowed eyes, then downing the drink and wincing when it fizzed its way down his throat and into his stomach, where it began to heat up uncomfortably, before settling down. "Another, please."

"So suspicious, if it helps, I'll tell you my name!" The man said cheerfully, downing his own drink and then choking in surprise. "What in God's name was that?"

"Which God?" Veles asked dryly, making the man turn to look at him with wide, amused eyes.

"Which God would you like? I'll be your God, if you wish," The man said with a wink, making Veles snort and then shake his head in amusement at the man.

"I follow no god," Veles informed the man, then took the second drink from the wary looking bartender with a smile and turned on his stool to fully face the other man. "I go by Veles."

"Veles? Great to meet you! I'm Loki!" The man, Loki, said, holding out his hand for Veles to take, which he did, cautiously, and shook it, ignoring the bolt of lightning that shot down his spine when their skin touched.

"Good to meet you too. Why are you drinking the same things I am? What do you wish to forget?" Veles asked as he took a sip from his new drink, and looked at the man in front of him.

"Nothing! I've actually had a fine day! Caused some chaos, had a good laugh, found a new sweet treat! You should try it! It's called chocolate," Loki told him, eyes shining in excitement and Veles eyed him warily.

"Chocklit?" Veles asked, raising an eyebrow and Loki nodded enthusiastically in his seat and then began to rummage around in his dark brown robes for something, then pulling out a small, crinkled paper bag.

"Here!" Loki said, offering the bag to Veles, who eyed him warily and then pulled out a strange brown solid ball from the bag.

"What is it?"

"Eat it! Go on!"

"Why are you offering a complete stranger food?" Veles asked him cautiously, looking down at the dark brown ball in his hands. He looked up in shock when Loki huffed and took the chocolate from his hands, and before he could do anything to stop the man, Loki stuffed the chocolate into Veles' mouth.

Veles looked at the grinning man with wide eyes, whilst Loki placed his hand over Vele's mouth so that he couldn't immediately spit the treat out. Narrowing his eyes at the man, he bit down on the sweet in his mouth, and the groaned in pleasure as his mouth was filled with a rich, milky taste.

"Good, isn't it? I think I have found my reason to carry on in this world!" Loki told him, making Veles open his eyes and nod, gently removing Loki's hand from his mouth.

"It's very good. But doesn't help me forget. Which is why I'm here. Barkeep! Two more of those smoking drinky things! And er… whatever the man beside me wants," Veles told the shocked bartender, who nodded his head cautiously and turned to Loki.

"Sir?"

"Ah, whatever he's drinking is good with me!" Loki said with a wide smile, digging another chocolate from his bag and popping it into his mouth. The bartender nodded his head, and with a weary sigh, turned back to making drinks.

Four and a half hours later and more drinks than the bartender ever wanted to sell in his whole career, Loki and Veles were well on their way to forgetting pretty much everything. Except the fact that chocolate was good and they had run out of it three hours previously.

"Youateallmychocolate," Loki slurred, even as he waved the bartender down and blreaily pointed in the general direction of where he was sure his empty glass was.

"More, sir?"

"Yez'pleeze," Loki told him, nodding his head vigourously, before stopping and moving his hand to grip at his hair. "Ow."

"Dun move. 'Urts," Veles told Loki from his slumped position at the bar. "S'more f'me too," Veles added when the barman glanced at him, making the poor man sigh but nod his head.

"You glow. How'd'you do tha'?" Loki asked, squinting at Veles, who attempted to shrug, but actually looked like he had lost control of his limbs for a brief moment.

"S'oo y'am," Harry muttered, looking over at the man next to him and tilting his head slightly. "So d'you."

"I do?" Loki asked him in shock, looking down at his own hands and then frowning. "Don't see't."

"I do. You glow. S'all bright 'n'… shit." Veles finished lamely, waving his hand in Loki's general direction.

"Huh. M'I pretty?" Loki asked, still looking at his hand as though the power of his mind would make him glow.

"Yup," Veles agreed, nodding and getting a wide smile from Loki, who slid off his stool and moved to stand right next to Veles.

"You're pretty too," Loki told him with a nod and then surged forward and kissed Veles, missing his mouth slightly and getting the corner. Veles blinked in surprise, before turning his head and pressing his lips fully against Loki's. Pulling back, he looked at the grinning eyes of the strange man and tilted his head.

"We should go s'mewhere private," Harry told him and Loki nodded his head.

"Yeah, you should. Leave my bar before you scar any more of punters for life with your bizarre stories," Loki and Veles both turned to look at the barman, then Loki snapped his fingers, Veles winked and they both disappeared from the bar, leaving chaos behind them.

* * *

Veles blinked slightly as they reappeared in a large bedroom, and tried to will away the wave of nausea that threatened to take over, just as he was pushed onto the bed behind him. He lay sprawled across it and glanced up at Loki who was standing over him and smirking.

With a blink, both their clothes were gone, though both were too drunk to notice who did it, nor that the person they were with shouldn't have been able to do it in the first place. Loki crawled between Veles' legs, smirking at him, whilst Veles shuffled to lie on the bed completely, as opposed to hanging half off it.

"S'lube?" Veles whispered huskily, watching Loki kneel between his legs and then forgetting his question and throwing his head back with a moan when Loki swiped his tongue up his shaft.

Veles whimpered slightly when he felt a warm, wet heat engulf his erection and hands held his hips down to prevent him bucking up. He moved his legs further apart when he felt Loki's hands rub at his thighs, then cried out when Loki both sucked his erection and thrust a finger into him at the same time.

"S'goo—ack!" Veles cried out, pushing down on the digits stretching him, moaning and pouting when Loki pulled off his penis with a small pop.

"You ready?" Loki asked him, still hastily preparing him and pushing a third finger in him and pressed his prostate, smirking when Veles yelled in pleasure and arched off the bed.

"M'ready! Pleez'ki!" Veles begged, whimpering slightly, and then smiling a little drunkenly when he felt Loki remove his fingers, and moved Veles' legs over his shoulders. Loki to locked eyes with Veles as he began to push inside him.

Loki paused slightly once he was inside to the hilt, allowing Veles the time to adjust. As soon as Veles nodded, Loki was quick to pull out almost completely and then slam back inside, making Veles practically scream his pleasure, and begin to see sparks behind his eyes.

Given the amount of alcohol both had imbibed and the state they were both in, it came as no surprise to either when they didn't last very long. Veles came first, crying out a garbled word that no one could understand, and Loki soon followed behind him, with a wordless shout, then fell heavily on Veles.

"Muv," Veles muttered, weakly pushing at Loki's shoulder, who just grunted and shifted just enough that he wasn't smothering his bed partner. "Thnkss."

* * *

Veles groaned and opened his eyes, hissing in pain as the sunlight burnt his retinas from his skull. He slowly turned his fragile head to the side and took in the form of the snoring man next to him and frowned.

"What are you?" Veles whispered, raising his hand to tuck a stray piece of hair behind the man's ear and then gently got out of the bed he was lying in. He glanced at the sleeping man and smiled, well it was more of grimace, but the thought was there, and leant down to press a kiss to his forehead. "Sorry, but I can't get involved with a mortal."

Veles straightened, glanced around the opulent room, and then winked and disappeared from the room.

Minutes later, Loki grunted and then opened his eyes, before groaning in pain and throwing his arm over his eyes.

"Those wizard people managed to get an angel drunk. I'm impressed. Knew I liked them for a reason."

* * *

**Thirty years later**

Veles scowled as he walked through the streets of Washington DC, glaring at everyone he passed, and then walking into the wizarding quarter and heading straight for the main Ministry building of the country. Once there, he stalked past the stunned wizards and headed straight for the Minister's office, walking past the receptionist and heading straight inside, ignoring her protests.

"Excuse me! Who do you think you are, just bursting into my office like that?" The Minister, a tall, skinny man, demanded, making Veles sneer at him and drop his glamour. The man gasped and collapsed back down into his seat. "You…"

"I am Veles, the God of your people. Do you know how disappointed in you, I am? You have turned against a whole race of your own people! You have denied them of their own right to practise magic! You took away the magic that I gave to them! And the worst part, you didn't even give it back to the earth. You kept it for yourself," Veles said in a sad, disappointed voice, shaking his head. He then sighed and looked up, locking eyes with the terrified Minister.

"Th-they don't deserve magic! They are the reason for the hunts!" The Minister exclaimed, and Veles growled under his breath and held up a hand to stop the man's whining.

"Did you not learn from past mistakes? From the war of 1609? Did all those people that died, so that muggleborns could be accepted in this world, did they die for nothing?"

"N-no! But… that is not here! You don't understand! We have been persecuted! Forced to hide from everyone for fear that the hunts will start up again."

"Well, you will not have to worry about that anymore," Veles informed him, making the man look at him with wide eyes.

"W-what… what do you mean?" The man asked in a shaky voice.

"Do you have a way of contacting every wizarding home in this forsaken country? You have a week to inform everyone of what your actions have done. At the end of that week, every wizard and witch in this country will be stripped of their magic permanently. No child born on these shores will have magic and I will send all of the magic I took from you and put it into the earth. It will mean that any wizard or witch coming to these shores in future will experience problems with their magic. This will become a dead-zone to magic. And I vow to never return it. Perhaps I have been too lenient with you, perhaps people will learn from past mistakes from now on," With that Veles spun on his heel, dark blue robes fluttering around him, as he walked out of the office, leaving a pathetically sobbing man behind him.

He glanced at all the people as he passed them, feeling a small twinge of regret and guilt, knowing that many of them were innocent victims in all of this, just living in the wrong country at the wrong time. However, the poor muggleborn children, who he had specifically chosen to gift with magic, were innocent of all crimes, when they were taken from their families and drained of their magic. Many of which did not survive the process. He knew that he had had to do something drastic, to remind his people that he  _did_  exist and that they were not worshipping some imagined entity.

If taking the magic from the citizens of an entire county was the way to go about it, then so be it. If it made many people try to flee the country, he would allow them to leave  _and_  keep their magic. After all, the message had to be spread to other countries.

Sighing, Veles sent one last look at the people bustling around the magical building, completely unaware of what the actions of their Minister had brought them to. Then, with a shake of his head and a wink, he disappeared from the building for the last time.

A week later, only fifteen people managed to escape the country with their magic on time. Veles watched as his people suffered the pain of no longer having any magic, and stayed for a year to ensure that they would be able to survive amongst those they had previously scorned. Then, once satisfied that they would be fine, if not a little empty, he left the country, not to return again for over a century.

The magical citizens in all other countries around the world, whispered about the fearful God, Veles. The people of America became a legend, that was told as a cautionary tale to all students in their history lesson, and everyone prayed that they would not do something to bring about their God's ire, down on themselves.

* * *

**Six Years Later**

Veles was walking around Germany, having not been there for a good fifty years at least, and was absently watching a couple of non-magical children, playing catch in a park. He smiled softly and then turned his head away, frowning when he over heard two men talking to one another in low voices.

"I warned him that he was starting to get above his station in life. But he didn't heed my warning. I told him that there was whispers of one of those  _Tricksters_  hanging around," The man said, spitting the word Trickster and making Veles take a discreet step closer, intrigued by what the man was saying.

"I know, shame he had to go like he did though. Neighbours said he was heard screaming about the wolves of Thor on his door. Of course, his door was still intact, but his body was ripped to shreds," The other man said and Veles tilted his head to the side in confusion. Was there a witch or wizard around that was terrorising the local muggles?

Veles nibbled on his lip and wondered whether he should intervene or not, then shrugged and decided to check it out anyway, he was getting a little bored with the monotony that was his life recently, anyway. Popping a chocolate in his mouth, and mentally cursing that strange mortal man, whose name he refused to admit he could remember, for getting him hooked on the bloody stuff, he passed the gossiping pair and headed to where the unfortunate soul had been killed. The victim hadn't been a wizard, he would have been around to ferry his soul over, after all. He pondered over making a couple of lackies, like all the other Death Gods had, but then decided against it, his race wasn't that large in number anyway. He could cope.

When he arrived at the house, he could sense a strange, yet familiar, magic coating the small house, and frowned, before he glanced around him and walked inside. The body, not surprisingly, had been removed from the house and someone had come along and tidied the place up, presumably a member of the victim's family.

He tried to place where he had sensed this magic before, but it was escaping his memory and was driving him a little insane. It seemed to fizz on his tongue and, if he was completely honest, turned him on a little. Which was bizarre. Magic didn't normally do that. He was  _made_  of magic for crying out loud. Wrinkling his nose and then huffing in frustration, he shoved another chocolate into his mouth and glanced around the room in disinterest, not finding anything that was going to refresh his memory.

"Well… you weren't a very bizarre dream of mine." Veles shrieked in shock and then spun around, choking on the treat in his mouth and looking through the tears gathering in his eyes at the person that had spoken.

"You! This… you? What? Who  _are_  you?  _What_  are you? You're not one of my people," Veles demanded, narrowing his eyes at the smirking man, leaning against the wall by the door.

"I told you. I'm Loki. Don't tell me you forgot about our night of passion. It was magical. It was awe inspiring. It was the best night of your life. It was also the first time I ever passed out. Those wizarding folk make some brilliantly strong drinks. Got to commend them on that," Loki added absently, then locking eyes with Veles and smirking again, smirk growing wider when Veles gaped at him and then shook his head.

"Thank you," He deadpanned, and then sighed and rolled his eyes. "What are you? You haven't aged at all since I last saw you, over thirty years ago! So? And how have you got magic. I didn't give you any," Veles added, narrowing his eyes at the man in front of him, said man eyed him and then frowned.

" _You_  give me magic? Why would  _you_  give me my magic?"

"Just answer my questions, you infuriating man! And stop answering them with more bloody questions!" Veles demanded and Loki chuckled and pushed off the wall, walking over to stand in front of Veles and looking down at him slightly.

"I'm Loki, the Norse Trickster God. I enjoy…messing with people's minds. Didn't work on you though. I tried, I really did, just… fell flat. It was a little annoying. Now, back to my questions, what are you, and what did you mean by you didn't give me my magic," Loki asked, standing so close that Veles could feel his breath against the side of his face, making his body begin to react to that, combined with the magic Loki was seemingly generating.

"Veles, Trickster God of Magic and Death, and protector of souls. I choose who gets magic and who doesn't, normally. But I guess, being another god, that you got given it by the same people that gave me mine," Veles told him, eyeing the man speculatively and resisting the urge to take a step back.

"Possibly. Another Trickster God, huh? I have competition! Can't have that!" Loki told him, grinning and placing a hand on Veles' waist, making Veles narrow his eyes at the man.

"I am also a God of Death, do not annoy me, Loki," Veles warned, moving to place a hand on Loki's chest, to prevent the man from getting even closer to him. Or at least, that was what he told himself was the reason.

"Ah, you don't scare me. You're tiny," Loki told him and then leant forward slightly so that his mouth was by Veles' ear. "And I know how to make you beg."

"Er! Don't try to seduce me! I don't trust you to not… do something nefarious or something," Veles told him with narrowed eyes, pulling back slightly so that he could look up at Loki and mentally cursing that he was so short compared to the taller god in front of him.

"Aw, nefarious? Why… that's practically against my nature! I wouldn't know how to be… nefarious!" Loki told him with wide eyes and pout, which had the opposite effect intended and just made Veles scoff.

"You're a damned Trickster God. Your very being is nefarious. And your eyes are too close together. Sure sign of nefarious… ness."

"Nefariousness? Is that even a word?"

"Yes. Don't argue with me. Don't make me drag your soul down to my underworld and leave it there for all of eternity," Veles warned him, making his own magic flare up and Loki to smirk and press even closer to Veles, despite the hand on his chest.

"Ooh, don't be making promises now. What shall you do to me when you get me to your lair? Will it be…. Nefarious?" Loki asked him, moving a hand to curl around the back of Veles neck and moving to press his nose to the patch of skin behind his ear. Veles gasped and then coughed to cover his reaction, pressing on Loki's chest to try and make him move back

"Loki… look, we wouldn't work out. We're both too… different," Veles told the god, though he gave up on trying to shove the taller, and apparently stronger, man away from him.

"Different? We're both Tricksters! How is that different?" Loki asked him, scratching his nails slightly against Veles' neck and making his breath hitch, whilst Loki moved away from Veles' ear slightly and turned Veles' head so that their noses were touching slightly.

"We're… we shouldn't… what was I saying?" Veles asked, looking at Loki and moving to tangle his fingers into the god's hair.

"You were agreeing that my idea to go back to my place is a brilliant one," Loki told him, dipping even closer and pressing his lips to Veles', just in case the stubborn God decided to deny it. Veles went to protest, but ended up fisting his hand into Loki's hair and pressing closer to the man, moaning as he opened his mouth for him and brushing his tongue against the one thrust between his parted lips.

"I agree. Brilliant idea. Let's go now," Veles agreed when he pulled back slightly, breath mingling with Loki's as he glanced up at him. Loki pressed a sharp kiss to his lips and then moved his hand from Veles' neck to click his fingers.

Veles blinked and noticed that he was in a new room, the same one from all those years ago, if he wasn't wrong, He didn't have that long to be certain however, as Loki soon latched onto his neck and began to nibble and suck at the skin there, making Veles groan and grip onto his shoulders.

Veles pushed the robe off of Loki's shoulders, shrugging to get out of his own and letting them both drop to the floor by their feet. He then ran his hands down Loki's chest, breath hitching when Loki nipped at his throat and dipped his hand down the back of Veles' trousers.

Veles groaned and pulled back slightly, moving his head to kiss Loki's lips, as he untied the ties on Loki's shirt and then pushed that off his shoulders, moving from Loki's mouth, to press kisses to the skin as it was revealed. He smirked against the man's salty sweet skin as the god's hands got caught in his sleeves. Veles quickly twisted the shirt and then pulled his hand, holding it, down, making Loki's arms straighten behind his back.

"Knew you were kinky."

"Knew you couldn't shut up," Veles muttered backing Loki over to the bed and the pushing him down on to it, smirking at the wide, lust-darkened eyes staring up at him. "I should make a gag."

"Didn't think you were that kinky," Loki told him, smirking as he fidgeted to try and get comfy, whilst still being trapped. Veles grinned and then winked, making a silk black tie appear in his right hand. He moved to straddle Loki and then helped Loki get out of his shirt. However, before Loki could actually do anything, Veles tied the cloth around his wrists and then connected them to the cast iron headboard. "Thought that was a gag."

"You want a gag? I can make one of those for you, dear," Veles said in a sugary sweet voice, and Loki shifted and narrowed his eyes at Veles.

"Will you do something?... And how have you blocked my magic? How did you do that?" Loki asked him, struggling with the bonds around his wrists and then gaping at a grinning Veles.

"God of Magic," Veles singsonged, wiggling his fingers at Loki and smirking when Loki's eyes widened. "So now… you have no choice but to let me take control." Veles moved to rub their crotches together and moaned when Loki thrust up into him. He groaned and then waved his hand, getting rid of their trousers and making them both gasp at the sensation.

Veles leant down and pressed a kiss to Loki's lips, reaching a hand back to begin to prepare himself hastily. He moaned into Loki's mouth and gripped the other man's hair with his free hand, feeling Loki groan against him and arch up to make more contact.

Veles soon removed his fingers and then covered Loki's erection with lube, pulling away from kissing Loki and looking down at him with almost black eyes, moving so that the head of his erection was just penetrating him, making his gasp and lock eyes with Loki. He smirked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Should I move?"

"You're evil! Move!" Loki gasped, thrusting up as far as he could and making Veles gasp and thrust back down until Loki was fully inside him. Veles let his eyes shut and moaned loudly, not moving and just letting his body adjust slightly. "Move."

Veles opened his eyes and then moved, slowly pulling up and leaning forward to bite Loki's bottom lip, moaning breathlessly when Loki hit his prostate, and pressing a sharp kiss to Loki's lips before he pulled away and sat up. He moved his hands to lean them against Loki's chest, biting his bottom lip as he and the trickster god began to move faster, making the magic in both of them slowly begin to rise and clash. Veles cried out, dragging his nails down Loki's chest, making the other man groan and throw his head back, thrusting up sharply and getting a gasp from Veles.

Loki tugged at the bonds around his wrist, and then stopped when he felt his orgasm rushing through him, curling his toes and making him thrust up into Veles, just as the other god cried out and arched his back, eyes clenched shut as he too climaxed.

They stayed like that for a few moments before Veles slumped forward onto Loki's chest, letting his magic run over them to clean them and also get rid of the tie around Loki's wrists. Loki brought his arms down and wrapped them around Veles' waist tightly. They moved until they were lying on their sides, cuddled together, Veles hissing slightly when Loki pulled out and then moving to entangle their legs.

They lay like that, basking in the others magic humming under their skin, for a few hours. Neither one having the need to sleep, and just lying in silence, enjoying the after glow. After a few hours, however, Veles shifted and moved to sit up in the bed, making Loki open his eyes to look at him questioningly.

"I've got to go," Veles muttered to Loki as he got out of the bed, pressing a kiss to Loki's lips and moaning when the other god dragged his nails down his chest. "No, gotta go. Sorry. If I bump into you again, we should definitely do this again," Veles told him, pressing another kiss to his lips and then turning around and getting out of the bed.

"Well… I may have a way for you to find me. Should you need me," Loki added hastily, when Veles turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"And how is that, exactly?" Veles as him, and Loki floundered for a second and then smirked, making Veles have to mentally hold himself back from throwing himself at the trickster. Judging by the glint in his eyes, Loki was well aware of that fact.

"Well…."

* * *

**Twenty-Seven Years Later**

Veles smiled as he walked down Diagon Alley, watching the hustle and bustle of the passing wizards and witches. He hadn't been back to England for over fifty years, having decided that other wizarding communities needed him more, and he would admit to being pleased with how his home country was dealing with everything.

So far he had not witnessed much bad feeling towards any muggleborns or half-bloods, but he knew that that was only because people were still talking about what had happened in the Colonies all those years ago. He wasn't holding his breath that this apparent accepting state would stay that way. He could feel that something would happen in the future that would change things. It was the advantage of being a God (upper-case G, thank you very much), you got to sense anything that may happen that would affect your people, whether good or bad. Whatever he was sensing, was going to be bad. Very bad. However, he couldn't sense  _when_ it was going to happen, just that it was sometime in the future. Quite some time away.

He frowned when he noticed that the witches and wizards all seemed excited about something, but wasn't sure what had them all whispering to one another in excited voices. Moving closed to two women, one of which was holding the hand of a small child, he casually leant against the wall and listened in.

"Oh no, we're just making a small family thing of our ritual. Nothing fancy for us this month. What about you? Will you be going to the homage to our Lord and Saviour in the Alley?" The woman with the child asked, making Veles frown in concern, for one, he was fairly certain he was the only God that the wizarding world, therefore, the rather ominous sounding 'homage' would be for him. And for another, he hadn't ever been invited to one of these things. Which was just rude.

"Oh yes, we've decided to make a night of it. We're going with Alan's parents. Apparently they go every month and decided that they wanted us to go with them this time, introduce their new daughter in law to some family friends." Veles wrinkled his nose, quite happy that he'd never have to deal with family or partners. He was, however, now insatiably curious about what the whole wizarding world in England apparently did to appease his, well he wasn't sure what. Wrath? Veles gave a small chuckle at that, which happened to grab the attention of the two women.

"Oh! Hello! Didn't see you there, are you coming tonight?" The woman with the child asked him, and Harry cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow in question, though mentally he was deciding on the accent to use. Remembering another certain god, he mentally smirked and decided on imitating Loki's accent. Or at least, the accent the trickster god used whenever talking to him. "To the Homage?"

"I do not understand," Veles said, looking at them with wide eyes, though his hood cast a shadow over most of his face.

"Oh, not from around here then? Ah, well, you should come tonight, say your thanks to our God Veles," The other woman told him and Veles shrugged his shoulders and looked around him, trying and hoping he gave off an air of confusion.

"In Scandinavia, we do not have to give thanks to Veles. Why must you?" Veles asked, wincing a little as he thought about what Loki would do to him, should he hear what Veles was doing to his accent.

"Oh no! You must! You don't want to bring Veles' wrath down on you now, do you? Did you not hear what he did to the Colonies? Terrible. Stripped them of their magic! No warning, just took it from them!" The mother told him and Veles frowned and shook his head.

"He must have had reason. Veles would not have done such a thing without due cause," Veles insisted, feeling a small tendril of anger burning in the pit of his stomach. "When was this incident?"

"Oh, well, it was quite a while back, over thirty years ago. But you never know when something may anger him, I've heard he has quite the temper over some things. Come tonight, see how we appease him, perhaps you could take it back to your country," The other woman told him and Veles narrowed his eyes at them, then tilted his head in acquiescence.

"What time will it be?"

"Oh, you just come to the Alley at eight thirty tonight. Bring someone along if you wish. It's a time to be with friends and family, and to make new friends," The woman told him happily and Veles held back a sigh, but nodded his head.

"I do not think I will be bringing anyone with me. I shall see you tonight," Veles told them with a dip of his head, he then turned on his heel and walked off, smirking when he heard the women behind him muttering about him.

"He may encourage his own people to do this," The mother whispered and Veles couldn't help but snort.

"Unless it involves a vat of chocolate, Loki will not take any sort of ritual on," Veles muttered, he considered, for all of a second, calling Loki to him, but decided swiftly against it, fearing for his peoples sanity should he introduce the strange god to them.

At eight fifteen, Veles walked through the surprisingly crowded streets of Diagon Alley and frowned in confusion. He tugged his blue robes around him and made sure that no one was paying much attention to him. He dodged through the excited people chatting to their friends and families, and slowly pushed his way to the front of the crowd, which appeared to be the old Gringott's bank. Veles felt his heart constrict as he mourned the loss of the magical beings that had been one of his favourites, and then felt a wave of anger at the beings standing around him, making all the lamps fade and flicker as his magic clashed with the magic in them.

Everyone hushed a little, looking at the lighting, and then began to laugh, somewhat nervously, once Veles had calmed himself down and everything went back to normal. Veles sighed and moved to lean against a shop, keeping the large stage that had been placed in front of the abandoned bank in his sight.

At eight thirty exactly, a pompous looking man stepped on the stage and cleared his throat, before pressing his wand to his throat, beaming widely at all the people gathered around him.

"Men and women of the wizarding world, it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the May celebration of Veles the Powerful. I am also pleased to be sharing my first Celebration as Minister with you all tonight," The pompous man stated, getting a cheerful round of applause from the crowd, and making Veles snort and roll his eyes, ignoring the scandalised look the woman next to him shot him.

"So, we shall get the Celebration underway with the first ritual of the night, Greene, if you could bring on the sacrifice," The minister said, making Veles stiffen and narrowed his eyes at the sneering man who Veles took to be called Greene. Greene nodded and then walked behind the stage, only to come back with a crup puppy. Veles closed his eyes in disgust and shame and then shook his head.

He pushed off of the wall he was leaning against, glanced at the small puppy and then winced when Greene gleefully shoved a knife into the puppy's stomach. Feeling sick and ashamed, Veles realised that there was nothing he could do for his people anymore. He couldn't take the magic away from another country of wizards and witches, clearly the survivors of the last time twisted their reasons for the punishment and the outcome was this.

Veles shuddered and forced his way through the crowds of people, ignoring their disapproving looks, and deciding to no longer take such as active role in the lives of his people. He refused to stick around to see what other rituals they were going to do in his honour. Glancing over his shoulder once more at the crowds of people watching the horrific show on stage, Veles disappeared from the Alley.

* * *

**Twenty Years Later**

Veles frowned and concentrated on where he could sense Loki, disappearing from where he stood in Norway, to appear near to where Loki apparently was. He hadn't seen the amusing god for over forty years and, given that it was coming up to his two hundredth birthday, he wanted to celebrate it for the first time. Loki, being the only person he could actually call a friend, was his obvious choice as the only person he would want to actually celebrate with. Hence why he was now standing in the corner of a large building.

He stepped out of the shadows and looked around him, wrinkling his nose at being in a place that he had never been in before. He looked up and felt his jaw drop at the huge, detailed painting on the ceiling, then looked over when he heard someone speaking Italian, giving him a clue, at least, as to where he was.

Nibbling on his lip, he tried to sense where his friend was, and then walked over to where he could see someone sitting against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. Getting close enough to see that it was, in fact, Loki, Veles paused and frowned. The look on the Trickster god's face was one of remorse and utter sadness, and something that Veles had never seen on the man's face before.

"Loki?" Veles called out in Norwegian, making Loki jerk and look over at him in surprise, he quickly stood up, brushing himself down and turning to face Veles.

"What are you doing here?"

"Er…  _where_  is here?" Veles asked, looking around him once more, and missing the small smile that crossed Loki's face.

"The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City," Loki told him quietly and Veles nodded, still looking up at the ceiling.

"Okay. Er… why? And… Lo, what's wrong? You haven't once demanded anything sugary, or even smiled. Are you alright?" Veles asked him, looking at him in concern and placing a hand on his arm.

"I'm fine, Veles. I just like this place. It's… peaceful," Loki told him, looking up at the ceiling. Veles looked at the god closely and wondered about his almost reminiscent stare.

"Yeah… I guess it is. I wonder… I wonder if their God ever feels disappointment over what his children have done to each other," Veles muttered, looking at all the people that were wandering around the large room.

"He does," Loki told him, sounding more weary than Veles ever thought he would, making Veles look over at him in question. "What god doesn't? I'm lucky, I don't have any worshippers, I am just feared as being someone that will put a person in their place. But for their God and all other gods that have given a part of themselves to the humans? Who wouldn't feel disappointment and shame. All they do… all they do is kill one another. For petty reasons."

"It's free will. They all have it, and they all abuse it. Free will… it makes people go crazy. They are filled with all these  _emotions_  and they… they don't know how to express them. Unfortunately that means that most choose to express them through violence."

"Why are you so depressed? Why did you come to find me?" Loki asked him, looking at him from the corner of his eyes, as they both stood by a wall and watched the people passing them, not noticing the two gods chatting.

"I came to the realisation that… no matter what I do, my people will twist it and do something that will anger me and make me regret what I gave to them," Veles admitted, not looking at Loki and not really seeing the people in front of him. "They felt they needed to slaughter an innocent to appease me. I'm… they seem to think their God is some fearful being that will strike them down in fury if they should put one foot wrong, but they don't get what it is that angers me."

"Huh, do they have a reason for believing that?" Loki asked, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, Veles glanced at him, and then joined him on the floor and shrugged. He then sighed and dragged a hand through his hair.

"I punished a country for what they did to others. Other than that, nothing. I tend to stay out of most things, I learnt that lesson decades ago. Now… now I will just take the troubled and lost souls on to their next destination," Veles said with a small shrug, making Loki sigh and shift so that he was leaning against Veles.

"So what is the domain of the God of Death like?" Loki asked, and Veles chuckled and leant his head on Loki's shoulder.

"Nice. I like it. I'll show you it one day," Veles told him and the two fell into a peaceful silence, watching the people pass though the building, until, as one, they both stood up and disappeared to different destinations.

* * *

**Sixty-One Years Later**

Veles nibbled on his lip and frowned, closing his eyes and putting all of his focus on trying to sense Loki, but sighing when he failed once more. The last time he had sensed the Trickster had been in the Vatican, since then he had felt nothing and heard nothing of Loki. And Veles was open enough to admit that he was worried. He didn't know what to do.

He had gone back to the Sistine Chapel every five years since, but hadn't seen the god there, nor had he sensed any of the man's unique magic, telling Veles that he hadn't been there since the two had departed all those years ago.

Now, for some unknown reason, he was wandering around India. He seriously had no idea why, for one, Loki had mentioned once that he never came here due to something to do with destroying something, or being a destroyer. Perhaps it was someone else that destroyed things. Still, Loki gave some sort of reason for never coming back to India, and therefore Veles had no clue why he was there.

Wrinkling his nose, he decided he'd wander towards the small grouping of people that he had given magic to. He hadn't been to check on them for a couple of decades, perhaps this was one group of people that wouldn't disappoint him.

He walked down the alley that would lead to the wizarding sector and tapped on the bricks, waiting for it to open, before stepping in and groaning. He now remembered why it was that he hadn't been for a while. No one in India actually believed in him anymore. Which was an embarrassingly short amount of time that he had been their God. A hundred and ten years. Made him want to hide under a rock just in case another god heard about it and laughed at him. Magic help him if Loki ever found out.

Of course, that route of thinking reminded him of his currently missing friend/lover/acquaintance/person and made him frown again. He spun on his heel and quickly left the magical alley of Bangalore, not wishing to stick around and deciding to nurse his wounded pride alone somewhere.

He quickly crossed the street and stepped into a pokey little restaurant, nodding to the man on the door as he passed and sitting down, refusing to acknowledge that he was pouting. He quickly ordered a water and then sat back and wondered what to do next. If he was quite honest, one of the reasons he had started searching Loki out this time, was because he was bored. Though, mainly it was because he was worried about the Trickster.

He was abruptly pulled from his morose musings when someone sat down opposite him, making his head snap up and look at the Indian man sitting across from him, with a wide and knowing look in his eyes.

"Er…" Veles said, looking at the man opposite him with wide eyes. He could feel the magic coming off the man in front of him in waves, and like Loki, the magic was different to the kind his own people, and himself, had. But it was also very different to the magic Loki gave off. "You… Who? Eh?"

"You are not the most eloquent of people, are you? You feel very powerful, but you are still very young, are you not?" The man said to him, making Veles raise a disbelieving eyebrow, he'd never actually considered himself as young. Ever. Well, except when he actually  _was_  young.

"Er… I don't  _feel_  young," Veles finally settled on saying, and the man across from him gave him an appraising look before he chuckled and settled back in his seat.

"Pleasure to meet you, Little One. I am Ganesh," The man told him and Veles slumped in his seat and pouted.

"Oh. The Hindu god. Great. You stole my people. I give them magic and they just turn around and worship someone else. Who looks like an elephant. No offence," Veles added hastily, relaxing somewhat when Ganesh just chuckled deeply.

"You are the one to gift some of our subjects with magic then?"

"Yeah," Veles said with a sigh, then he straightened his back and titled his head to the side. "You don't mind, do you? I mean, I could take it back from them, but the people here? They're the only ones that haven't really done anything the upset me, besides turning to another religion. But if you want to, I will. I mean, there's only one of me after all."

"They can keep their magic. We heard of what happened to those that angered you in the Americas. We do not wish to punish those that chose to worship us. And you know, there are still a few that whisper your name. They have not all forgotten about you," Ganesh told him, looking amused.

"Really? Look… can we just er… keep the fact that a whole country of my own people turned their backs on me after only a century of believing in me, under wraps? You know, just between our two religions?" Veles asked him, making his eyes wide and trying to give off an innocent aura, knowing that the god in front of him wasn't affected by his normal glamour and thus could see his er… glowiness as Loki put it. Ganesh looked at him and then chuckled.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of. Mortals are fickle creatures when it comes to their beliefs. We have all experienced losing some of our people to another religion. You are just new, you will get used to it. Your people are just not used to having a religion."

"They've never known life without having a God though. I mean, I know I've only been a god for maybe… two hundred and fifty years, if that, but well… the oldest of my people is a hundred and seventy-six… and somewhat senile. Well… of the wizards," Veles added and Ganesh looked at him questioningly.

"Just who do you watch over? Wizards and witches, but who else? Vampires?"

"No, they're er… actually, believe it or not, they were created by the Christian God," Veles said with a small chuckle and a shrug. "No, they're not under my control at all. They don't actually have any magic besides some odd magic that is keeping them er… alive. Loosely using the term."

"Oh, so what do you have jurisdiction over? I'm quite interested as we Hindu gods only watch over humans, and now wizards and witches." Ganesh added with a grin at Veles, making Veles smile back at him sheepishly.

"Looks that way. So… what I have some say over? Veela, they're kind of er… well they're temptresses, sort of like sirens, which I also have control over. Incubi and succubae, those are mine. I'm quite proud of those. They're new and all my creation. They're called sex demons, but… they're not, not really. Well, they're not demons at least. They do feed off of sex though," Veles added in a musing voice, making Ganesh look at him and then shake his head in amusement.

"Why did you make them that way?"

"Why not? I don't have any laws or rules for my people, only that they tolerate one another, even those that aren't the same as them. I didn't think I was asking for all that much, but apparently I was," Veles muttered darkly.

"We all have that problem. It's the free will clause that we have to give them. What else are yours? What do I need to look out for?"

"Erm… to be honest, none of my children will be any danger to you or any other gods, but yeah, your own subjects might get troubled by them. I've got a whole host of magical animals that I made, I like animals. Decided to erm… embellish some already around, and others, I just completely made up. But humanoid beings that I watch over are also sprites, piskies, faeries, centaurs, merpeople, dementors and banshees. House elves too," Veles added as an after thought, sipping at the glass of water on the table and looking over the edge at the man in front of him.

"That's a lot. You have followers all over the world?"

"Pretty much. I have followers in countries in all the continents, and I created an Ankou for each continent, to help me collect the souls and help them to move on. Though I do take most of the souls. I realised I'd need help a few decades back though, have you noticed how all the mortals just seem to be multiplying? It's quite astonishing," Veles muttered, eyes flickering over to a family that walked into and headed over to a table, before he looked back at Ganesh.

"So you take the souls of the magical people here?"

"No, they believe in you, not me. They go to wherever your lot go when they die. Seriously though, can we not let this pass outside of our religions? If Loki ever found out, he'd never let me live it down," Veles grumbled, almost to himself, though going by the amused look on Ganesh's face, the god heard him.

"Loki? The Norse Trickster god?" Ganesh asked him, making Veles look at him sharply and narrow his eyes.

"You know of him then? Have you seen him at all over the last couple of decades? I've been trying to find him and I can no longer sense him. I'm worried about the moron," Veles admitted with a frown, looking down at the glass in his hands and nibbling on his bottom lip.

"I have not seen Loki for many centuries now, not since the last time he and Kali the Destroyer came to blows about something. He has not entered India since," Ganesh admitted and Veles looked up at the name of the other god and snorted.

"The Destroyer? That would be what he was rambling on about then, last time I mentioned this place," Veles said, feeling amusement at his friend, before he was over come with worry for him once more and sighed. "Look, I should go, people to watch over, souls to carry on, you now how it is? I also may prank a couple of people, just to keep them on their toes. It was lovely meeting you, and I may come back to chat with you again."

"Do that, Little One. I enjoyed our conversation, you can tell me more about your own creations on this planet and I can tell you more about mine," Ganesh told him, both of them standing up from the table and shaking hands.

"Sounds like a plan. I really do need to go. I need to head towards Ireland soon, something bad is going to happen there and really need to be there for my people there. They are my strongest believers on this planet. But… should you hear from Loki, do you think you could either tell him to search me out, or tell me where you heard he was last, please? If it's not too much trouble?" Veles asked and Ganesh locked eyes with him for a moment before he nodded.

"Of course. I would say it was an odd friendship that you two seem to have made, but I would be naïve to think that. Two Trickster's would, I imagine, have quite a bit in common."

"We do. And a fair bit we don't. Keeps things interesting. See you around, Ganesh," Veles said, winking and leaving the restaurant as his robes whipped around him.

"Indeed we will, Little God."

* * *

**Forty Years Later**

Veles wandered through the ash-ridden paths of Pulau Surtung and sighed as he knelt down to send another soul on. The island, thought to be uninhabited by the non-magical residents of this planet, had actually been inhabited by a few hundred of his own creatures. The sirens, incubi, succubae and his newest creations, leanbraioch had all inhabited the island, and all had been wiped out when the volcano had erupted. He had told the nearest ankou that he would send all the souls from this island on, and had told it to deal with any other magical beings that had been killed by the eruption.

He sighed as he brushed a finger over the crimson forehead of a young leanbraioch, silently mourning the loss of another species, though this time lost to natural disaster. He had almost sent on all the souls that he could sense on the island, and was preparing to move on to the next one over, to see if the ankou needed any help, when he sensed someone behind him.

Turning quickly on his heel, he reared back in shock at seeing Loki standing behind him, looking around at the destruction around him in shock and confusion, before he turned to look at Veles. Veles frowned when he noticed that the god looked no better than the last time he had saw him, the previous century.

"You look how I feel," Veles informed him, walking past Loki, brushing past him as he knelt by the last soul he needed to collect, an incubus, and sent it on with a sharp tap to it's forehead and a whispered word of encouragement. "Where have you been? I was beginning to get worried."

"I know. A mutual friend of ours told me. He informed me that you might need a friendly face, and now I understand what he meant. I don't think I had ever been to this island before. Didn't even know it had occupants," Loki admitted as he looked around him once more.

"No, no one really did. It was only truly inhabited in the last century or so. When I created these tiny people," Veles murmured, running a finger down the face of a crimson skinned, silver haired creature. Loki walked over and titled his head to the side as he examined them, taking note of the long, delicate fingers and long pointed ears. Veles was right, it was really quite small, only reaching two foot in height, had it been standing.

"What is it?"

"They were a kind of sprite, I suppose would be the best description. They thrived in hot climates, but needed to be close to water. This place was ideal. Clearly not as ideal as I had hoped. This is the second species I have lost to extinction now. I really quite liked them," Veles muttered, then he sighed and stood up, turning to face Loki. "Enough about my troubles however, we need to talk about you. It's not good for a Trickster to be walking around with a bottom lip he might soon trip over. Lo, what's wrong?"

"I don't – I can't say. It's nothing really. Nothing important at least," Loki insisted, looking away from Veles to glance towards the islands in the distance, where the volcano had erupted, ash and smoke still billowing from it.

"Nothing important? You've been like this for over a century. I think that would suggest you were lying," Veles told him dryly, then narrowed his eyes at the stubborn god and stepped up to him, almost touching and forcing Loki to look at him. "Come with me. I know somewhere we can talk that will be safe from anyone that may feel inclined to listen."

Loki looked at him in confusion and Veles smiled at him softly, placing the palm of his hand to Loki's head and closing his eyes. Loki closed his own eyes and had the sensation of being squeezed through a straw, before it stopped and he opened his eyes.

He looked around him in confusion, taking note of the high ceiling of the room they were in, the walls seemingly made out of obsidian or something similar. There was a large bed in the room, with a deep blue cover over it, and two blue sofas facing a fireplace.

Veles stepped away from Loki and clicked his fingers in a way very similar to Loki, making the fireplace come to life with blue and silver flames, which made Loki frown and then look at Veles.

"What? It goes with the theme. Red and yellow would have messed it all up. This, Loki, is my realm. Well, my home within my realm. The whole realm is somewhat larger, having to host spirits and such. And nothing and no one can eavesdrop on anything said within this room."

"So this is where you live?" Loki asked, still looking at the fire with a bemused look on his face, before he wrenched his eyes away and looked at an amused God of Magic.

"Sort of. Mostly I live up top, got a small cottage in Moscow. Nice place, locals are delightful. Sometimes," Veles added as an after thought, then he moved and sat in one of the couches, looking at Loki, who quickly did the same and sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "You don't have to tell me. But I am here to listen."

"I know. It's just… hard. Everything is hard. And recently it's become harder for some reason. I don't really know why. It happens every so often. I get melancholy and think about what things were like before…" Loki trailed off and Veles looked at him in confusion and concern.

"Before? Before when? Before mortals seemed to get more and more inventive with their reasons to hate one another? I know that feeling," Veles grumbled and Loki chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head.

"No. I'm not… I don't – I'm not a God like you. I can't create beings, I don't have any followers anymore and… well I'm not like you," Loki muttered, scrubbing at his face with his hands, whilst Veles just continued to feel confused.

"Well no, I never thought you were. For one, you're Norse and most seem to think I'm Slavic. Which I've never understood, can I just say. My people are all over the world. And well… you're a heck of a lot older than I am and your er… your magic is different to anything that I have ever come across. It's amazing to be honest," Veles told him with a small smile, getting an even smaller one in return from Loki.

"There's a reason that my magic feels so different to yours. Like I said I'm not like you. I don't…" Loki trailed off and sighed, looking around the room and then back at Veles. "No one can hear us in here? Nothing? No other gods or creatures?"

"No," Veles told him, frowning in confusion and then looking around the room. "This is separate from the mortal realm. This is all mine, you are the only other god that even knows of this place. No one can enter this realm without my say so, I know everyone and thing in this place. That includes gods from all religions. Even the Judeo-Christian God can't get into this place without my say so."

"So I can tell you anything and no one else will hear it?"

"Precisely. Loki, what's going on?" Veles asked, standing up to sit on the same sofa as Loki, placing a hand on the Trickster's arm.

"I wasn't always known as Loki, Norse trickster god. I went as something before I took up that role," Loki muttered, snapping his fingers and then looking disappointed at something.

"I'm the only one that can use magic in this room. What did you want?" Veles asked, deciding to go with that one before he tackled who Loki was  _before_  he was Loki.

"Chocolate. I'm going to need lots of chocolate. And anything else sweet," Loki grumbled and Veles chuckled but snapped his fingers together, making a bowl full of sweets and other candies appear in his other hand, which he then passed over to Loki.

"Okay… so you have your sugar intake now," Veles said, watching as Loki nibbled on a chocolate truffle. "Want to tell me who you were? What name you went by before you chose Loki?" Veles asked, shifting so that he was sitting sideways on the sofa and was looking at Loki.

"Gabriel," Loki muttered around a chocolate bonbon that he had shoved in his mouth. Veles looked at him and tilted his head to the side, the name seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't place why.

"You were human? Before becoming a god, I mean. You were a human called Gabriel? I was a human before this, you know? I was called Harry though, which is slightly more boring than Gabriel, though less... gender ambiguous. Is that what's wrong though? You're upset about something from your human life?" Veles asked and Loki shook his head and then sighed and clutched the bowl tighter. Veles was amused to see that Loki was either trying to protect the chocolates or was hiding behind the chocolates.

"No. I was something else," Loki told him and Veles looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I was an archangel. The Archangel Gabriel."

Veles was silent for a few moments before he nodded and then grinned widely. "If I were Catholic, I'd so be kneeling at your feet right now."

"You have to be Catholic to kneel at my feet? Since when? Never stopped you before," Loki pointed out, looking a little relieved that Veles hadn't made a bigger deal of it. Veles chuckled and moved so that he was kneeling on the sofa and moved to almost press against Loki's side.

"So do you have wings?" Veles asked, lips brushing against Loki's ear. He smirked when he felt Loki shudder.

"I do, yeah," Loki admitted in an equally low voice as Veles, tilting his head to the side to give Veles access to his neck, and bringing his hand up to grip the God's hair in his fist.

"Can I see them?" Veles asked, brushing his nose against the skin behind Loki's ear and then pressing a kiss to it, he brought and hand up and trailed it down Loki's spine. He smirked against Loki's skin when Loki gasped and clenched his fist tighter in Veles' hair.

"Sure," Loki gasped, before he moved quickly, dropping the bowl of treats to the floor and dragging Veles to straddle his lap. Veles gasped in surprise and then moaned into Loki's mouth when the trickster pulled his head down to kiss. Loki pulled back slightly and locked eyes with Veles, smirking. "Now?"

"No," Veles told him, rocking his hips down into Loki's, breath hitching in pleasure when their erections brushed. He moved his head to suck at the skin on Loki's neck, groaning when Loki moved his hands to grip Veles' hips and bring them closer together. "Right now I have other plans."

"I think I like where these plans look to be going," Loki muttered, groaning as his hips bucked up into Veles, causing the God to bite his neck.

"Oh, you will," Veles told him as he licked at bite mark on Loki's neck and thrust down into him. He then pulled back to look at Loki and winked, making their clothing disappear.

"Neat trick, you'll have to teach me."

"And make you lose your trademark finger clicking? Definitely," Veles smirked, then gasped when Loki gripped both their erections and began to stroke them. Veles moved his hands to grip at Loki's shoulders and pressed his forehead against Loki's. "Shouldn't you be all virginal and pious? Being an angel and all?" Veles asked, voice hitching when Loki's other hand moved to brush against him.

"Not an angel anymore. It was too boring for me. Lube?" Loki asked, pressing the tip of his finger into Veles, and making Veles gasp and press back, even as he waved his hand and made lube appear on Loki's fingers.

"We really need to talk after thi-iss," Veles said, voice hitching and making him hiss out oaths in Parseltongue when Loki immediately pushed two fingers inside of him, and began to search for his prostate. Veles yelped and thrust down onto Loki's fingers when he found it.

"We don't need to talk about anything, Vel," Loki whispered, brushing almost continuously against that spot in Veles, and making the God keen as he pressed himself as close to Loki as he could get.

"Okay! Fine! Stop teasing me!" Veles finally cried out, when Loki pushed a third finger into him and continued to brush against his prostate, whilst his other hand moved from his erection to grip the back of Veles' neck and brought his head back down so that he could kiss him.

Loki smirked against their lips and withdrew his fingers, before he spread the rest of the lube over his own erection and then slid his hand down Veles' back and gripped his hip. Veles moved so that the tip of Loki's erection was pressing against him, but not penetrating him, and then pulled away from the kiss and looked into Loki's eyes. He smirked and lowered onto Loki, bringing a groan from them both, and stopping when Loki was in completely.

"You can tell me anything, Lo," Veles told the Trickster breathlessly, looking right at him and then lifting and thrusting back down, almost as quickly. Loki didn't reply to Veles' statement, instead he gripped Veles' hips and began to quicken the pace of their thrusts.

Soon, neither one could remember what they were talking about, both lost to the pleasure of their combined magic flowing over their joined bodies, increasing the pleasure and making them both gasp and moan. Veles was almost completely leaning against Loki's chest, as his legs started to turn to jelly, pressing open mouthed kisses to Loki's neck, and gripping his shoulders tightly, Loki's own grip tightening on his hips as he began to thrust even quicker.

Veles nipped and bit at the skin of Loki's collarbone, a hand moving up to wrap into the ex-angel's hair as he felt his orgasm building in the bottom of his stomach, making his toes curl. He pulled back, breathing heavily as he moved in time with Loki, moving to kiss him and moaning into his mouth, before he pulled back and cried out, his orgasm crashing over him and making his clench around Loki, causing the other cry out his own orgasm.

Veles slumped against Loki's chest, feeling completely boneless and breathing heavily, feeling Loki's chest moving in time with his own deep breaths. He slowly unclenched his fist in Loki's hair and moved his hand to rest against Loki's neck, feeling the other god move his arms to wrap them around his chest, and nuzzling his face into Veles' hair.

"I'll always be there for you, should you ever need to talk," Veles whispered, breath brushing against Loki's skin and making the other man shudder. They shifted and Veles groaned when he felt Loki pull out of him, Loki rubbing his hand up and down Veles' spine.

"I got fed up of the fighting. I had to leave."

* * *

**Twenty-Nine Years Later**

Veles growled when he read the news about the Titanic sinking, and quickly vanished from where he was standing in Bruges and appeared in Diagon Alley, narrowing his eyes at the wizards and witches there, looking at them all for something suspicious.

It was fifteen minutes later that he spotted a small group of four people walking down the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron, talking in low voices and occasionally laughing. Veles pushed off of the wall and followed behind the group of wizards and entered the dingy pub.

He sat down in the booth behind the group and leant back, closing his eyes and focusing completely on the group of wizards.

"So it worked then? You've heard back that it worked?" One of them whispered in a hushed voice and Veles frowned, a sinking feeling in his gut, that he had had since he had first read the headline.

"Well it is all over the muggle newspapers. How else could it have happened?"

"Well, however it happened, it means that thousands of muggles have just died. So really, we should be celebrating," Another man said, and Veles scowled and growled under his breath.

"Shh. Don't say that. You know what happened to those that had settled in the America's. You don't know who might be listening," The first man hissed, looking around them nervously, and Veles sighed and shook his head.

"Veles does not exist. It is a fairy tale we tell children to scare them into eating their vegetables. Everyone knows that the natural wild magic of the Americas is the reason all those people lost their magic," The man said with a sneer and Veles narrowed his eyes at the table in front of him and then stood up abruptly.

"Still, do not tempt fate."

"Veles doesn't care about you or your petty ideals anymore. He has wiped his hands of all wizards and witches," Veles informed them, getting startled looks from all four men, before he tilted his head in a mockery of a greeting and then disappeared.

He had no idea why he had given his magic to such selfish, undeserving creatures. He had learnt his lesson from the last time he had ripped the magic from them though. He wouldn't do so anymore. He just wouldn't do anything for them either. He'd only go to them when they truly needed his help from now on.

Sighing, he appeared back in the town centre of Bruges and headed for the church where he had agreed to meet with Loki and catch up. And probably field off the annoying god's attempts to get him to move to America for a while with him.

* * *

**Four Years Later**

Veles didn't know what to do. He may have been disappointed in his people, and may have even claimed that he would no longer help them, but they were being killed. They were killing. And it was horrific.

It did not shock him to find that it was mostly muggleborns and half-bloods, the ones with a connection to the muggles involved in the fight, that were mainly signing up for the war. But the occasional pureblood would also sign up, though Veles wasn't entirely sure on all of the reasons for it.

What worried him about the whole mess, was not the deaths, and the affect it would have on everyone. It was the fact that this was  _not_  the huge event that would be happening soon. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what the niggling in the back of his mind meant, especially if it meant it was worse than what was happening right now.

Veles was one of the many Gods of Death that religions had wandering around, so he was used to the horrific ways that humans and creatures came up with to kill one another, but the use of hand grenades had never been in any of the wars that his people had been involved in before. And the damage that the shrapnel coming from the explosions caused, was devastating.

Veles stood to the side, and watched with a blank face as a piece of shrapnel had killed the soldier he had been waiting on just by glancing past the victims head as whizzed past, ripping into the flesh and causing a fatal bleed on the brain. The soldier's soul had just stood next to Veles, watching his comrades watch his falling body in horror, before sighing and looking at Veles.

"So the purebloods were right, you  _do_  exist. I'll admit… I didn't really believe them. But then, I didn't believe in any other god either," The soldier, Sidney Burton, told him with a sad sigh, eyes going back to look at his body, which the other soldiers had dragged into the trench with them. "At least my parents will have my body to bury."

"Yes, there is that at least. I'd imagine it still leaves you feeling hollow inside," Veles commented, not bothering to comment on the soldiers beliefs, or lack there of. He had known about the young man's beliefs, given that he didn't expect anything of an afterlife and Veles had claimed him as his own when he gave him his magic, it fell to Veles to take the man on. "Come, there is nothing for you here anymore, you need to move on."

"Do I have to?" Sidney asked him, and Veles blinked at him, which was his only show of shock at the not entirely unexpected question.

"No," Veles told him honestly, then glanced back at the fight still raging before them. "But you can't go back to your body. Eventually, should you come with me, you will be reincarnated, but if you stay… you'll just be a spirit wandering these fields until someone finds your remains and burns them. There are no good choices left to you once you're dead."

"No, I guess not. It was a stupid war. Don't even know what I was fighting for," William muttered, and Veles sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Freedom. You were fighting for freedom," Veles told him bluntly, then took him down to the underworld before the man could change his mind, not that he had actually  _made_   _up_  his mind in the first place.

* * *

Veles made his way back to the mortal world and sighed as he made his way to the Somme to see if there would be another soul for him to collect, he had made three of his ankou just focus on the victims of this war, leaving only two to deal with the people that died of natural causes or of causes that were not brought on by this war. Veles had decided to put most of his focus on the war, but would occasionally go back to the civilians, he had not had a break however, since the war had broke out.

Which meant that he hadn't had a chance to see Loki at all for the past two or so years. Since the war had broken out, in fact. Loki had decided that he would wreak havoc on the main instigators of this war, and also pull petty pranks to at least inject some cheer into the lives of the children most affected. Veles had other commitments however, and a small part of him had felt a flash of jealousy that the ex-archangel could find some escape from all the death. The shame that followed that feeling quickly smothered it.

Still, he hated this side of his existence. Though he would always admit that the increasingly inventive ways that mortals came up with to kill and hurt one another never stopped to amaze him in a slightly morbid way.

He walked through the dead bodies left on No Man's Land, glancing to either side of the war and noticed another ankou, Prentice, attending to another German wizard, possibly calmly explaining his choices, or lack thereof.

"So this is what I've been missing? Looks… messy," Veles spun around and raised an eyebrow when he saw Loki standing not that far behind him, looking at the bodies scattered around what used to be a field.

"Hmm. Messy is one way of describing it. How goes your own task?" Veles asked, turning back to face where he was going, leaving it up to Loki as to whether he would follow him or not.

"I've had a break in things. An old family member was lingering around a bit too close to where I was staying. Didn't want to be found," Loki muttered, and Veles stopped and looked at his friend in concern.

"Well… shit. Did they sense you before you left?"

"I don't think so," Loki admitted with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck and then shoving a bright red, shiny stick in his mouth and snapping a piece off, before chewing on it.

"You don't… what is that?" Veles asked, watching the other god nibble on the strange coloured object.

"Huh? This? It's a Twizzler. Like… a liquorice stick," Loki told him and then passed one of the red sticks to Veles, who warily took it and looked at it strangely.

"Liquorice doesn't tend to be red," Veles pointed out, still not putting the sweet anywhere near his mouth, and noticing that Loki was watching him in amusement.

"Have you noticed we have the most random of conversations in the most inappropriate of places? And it's strawberry flavoured. I think," Loki added hastily, with a small shrug, finishing off his own Twizzler and pulling another out of his pocket.

"We do. But recently, there hasn't actually been anywhere that is appropriate for any light-hearted conversations. Back to the original topic however, are you certain they didn't sense you?" Veles asked him and Loki paused with the Twizzler in his mouth and then shrugged, pulling it out and sighing.

"I don't know. I hope not, but I'm not too sure. If they did, chances are we don't have long until they will be here," Loki admitted with a sheepish grin.

"Why did you come to me then? I mean, why didn't you go somewhere they wouldn't be able to find you?"

"I don't know of anywhere and I figured, who better to hide me than a god of death?" Loki asked with a cheeky grin, making Veles roll his eyes and nod his head.

"I'll take you to my underworld. You'll be safe there. Let me go grab that soul over there, Friedrich Wewer is about to come to an unfortunate demise," Veles commented lightly, making his way over to where a German soldier was getting ready to charge over the trenches.

Loki walked after him and watched, flinching when the bullet hit Friedrich in the chest and made him drop to the floor, his comrades having no choice but to fall back and having to leave the body behind.

"Friedrich, come, it's time to leave here. You are of no help to your friends any longer," Veles told the soul quietly, and Loki watched them then hurried to stand next to Veles when the God looked over at him.

"Will they be okay without me?" Friedrich asked him, looking over his shoulder at the soldiers behind him. Veles sighed and placed a hand on the souls shoulder, getting his attention back.

"They will be fine," Veles lied, gripping Loki's wrist with his other hand and then locking eyes with Friedrich. "It is time for you to move on now, let's go." And with that, Veles took them all down to the underworld.

* * *

Veles led Loki into his rooms after he had left Friedrich in the hands of his very competent Soul Manager, who went by the name of Charon for the sakes of unimaginative thinking, and the fact that the soul really had some odd obsession with Greek mythology.

Closing the door behind them, Veles gestured for Loki to take a seat and then made a sweeping gesture with his hand, which made a bowl of different sweets appear on the coffee table. Which made Loki make an interested noise and then pounce on it like a starving tiger would pounce on an injured lamb.

"So do you know which family member it was?" Veles asked, moving to sit on the chair opposite Loki.

"I don't know, no. Why? Would a name actually mean anything to you?" Loki asked him curiously, chewing on whatever he had just shoved into his mouth.

"Not really, no. I know your name and er… Hmm… Michael? That's one, right? He's an angel thing person?" Veles asked, making Loki snort and then choke on the sweet in his mouth.

"Michael? Yeah, he's an angel. He's a dick, too," Loki muttered, once he had stopped choking. Veles raised an eyebrow and then snickered.

"Such a loving family. Aren't Christians all for family love and stuff?" Veles asked with a negligent wave of his hand, whilst Loki just looked at him in amusement.

"What about you? You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope. I'm an only child. Per se. Uppercase G God, that's me," Veles told him with a very proud look on his face, making Loki snicker and shake his head.

"I'm a god too, you know."

"Lowercase g, makes all the difference. I'm more important. It's a proven fact. You have other gods to contend with and all that. I have all my people to myself, no one else to share my delicious little worshippers with," Veles informed him with a smug smirk, whilst Loki gaped at him.

"Yeah? Well… I'm an uppercase A Archangel! Beat that!" Loki exclaimed with a proud nod, and Veles scoffed at him.

"God beats Archangel… and technically, you're only uppercase A when someone is referring to the Archangel Gabriel… otherwise… still lowercase I'm afraid," Veles told him and Loki huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh go choke on a dictionary, you freak!"

"Don't get your Twizzlers in a knot, dear," Veles said with a smirk, before he frowned and shifted in his seat. "Upper or lowercase g, you're still a god. You feel when something bad is coming, don't you?"

"If it's going to be really big, then yeah, I do. Why?"

"Because I feel like something really big is coming. I've been feeling it for over a century now. And even with this stupid war going on, it's still there," Veles told him, nibbling on his lip.

"Ah, which means that it's going to be even bigger and more devastating than this. Yeah, I'm getting the same feelings as well," Loki admitted with a sigh.

"Well shit. So what now?" Veles asked, standing up from his chair and moving to sit on the same sofa with Loki, sitting sideways to look at the other man.

"Nothing we  _can_  do," Loki admitted with a shrug, looking uncomfortable with the fact.

"So I go back to convincing dead soldiers that they don't want to become future victims of hunters, and you go back to driving the leaders of this war round the bend?" Veles asked, looking at him with a completely unimpressed look on his face.

"Ah… actually, think I can hide out down here for a little while? I have no idea how long they're gonna be in the mortal realm for and  _really_  don't want to go back," Loki told him with a pout, and Veles rolled his eyes.

"Fine, stay here. Wander around, chat up the unsuspecting souls waiting for reincarnation, terrify the creations I have yet to send up. I really do need to go back up though. My ankou are becoming overrun," Veles said with a weary sigh, making Loki reach out and grab his wrist before he could stand up from the table.

"You have to leave right now? Because I can think of something that we could do that would take your mind off of everything for a short time," Loki told him wtih a smirk, making Veles snort and shake his head.

"You're absolutely certain you weren't lying to me when you told me you're actually an angel? Horny buggers, aren't you?"

"You've met other angels?"

"Well… no."

"Ah, see. Not all are horny. You should meet some of my younger brothers. I doubt they even know the meaning of the word horny," Loki told him, still grinning his Cheshire Cat grin.

"Really? And you haven't taught them the meaning? No corrupting the little fluffy angels of the Christian Heaven? No tarnishing their halos?" Veles asked with a sly grin on his face, making Loki chuckle and shake his head.

"You do know that we don't have halos, right? Where did that even come from? What is practical about having a metal hoop hovering above your head? Hardly inconspicuous," Loki told him, giving a small tug and making Veles snort but move and lean against him.

"Hmm, never know if some random demon is going to pull it down and throttle you with it. How about you try to corrupt me instead?"

"Corrupt you? I'm the innocent angel here, you're the one corrupting me."

"Loki, that would be akin to corrupting a whore," Veles told him, then yelped and began to laugh when Loki pinched his side.

"I'm ineffable, I'll have you know!" Loki exclaimed, whilst Veles was still giggling, leaning heavily against him.

"Sure you are. I guess I should get to work on corrupting you then?" Veles said, once he had stopped laughing, moving to press against Loki's side and pressing a kiss to the archangel's neck. "That  _will_  be fun."

* * *

**Twenty-Seven Years Later**

Loki blinked and glanced around Veles' rooms in confusion, before looking at the God himself in question.

"Did you just reap me?" Loki asked, making Veles scoff and sneer at him, waving his hand once more to make the usual bowl of sweets appear on the table, then moving to take a seat before he answered Loki's accusation.

"I don't reap. I'm not a damned Grim Reaper. I'm Veles, God of –"

"Yes, yes, God of Magic, Glitter and all other sparkly crap. I know. Still doesn't explain why you've dragged me down here. I was just setting up a brilliant prank on Hitler," Loki told him with a pout, then threw himself onto his normal spot on the sofa.

"We need to discuss what will be happening upstairs because… this? This isn't the bad thing that I've been getting butterflies about. And that really worries me," Veles muttered, watching Loki grab something from the selection in front of him and pop it in his mouth.

"Oh now, what's this? I've never had this before! It's very nice! All crunchy and sweet," Loki said, popping a pale yellow cube into his mouth and moaning in delight, whilst Veles watched him in amusement.

"It's turnip," Veles told him lightly, quite thankful at the abrupt topic change, smirking when Loki spat the chewed up remains out of him mouth and then began to wipe his tongue, glaring at Veles in disgust.

"Healthy? Vegetables? Why? Why would you  _do_  that? Don't you love me anymore?" Loki asked him, grabbing the glass of orange juice that Veles made appear next to the bowl, and washed his mouth out.

"What? It's very popular in England right now. Okay… popular isn't the word I'd use. Erm… well, it's rationing, you know? The little kiddies can't have their sweets and sugary things, so… turnips are always at hand," Veles said, shrugging when Loki just gaped at him.

"'Turnips are always at hand.'? You're odd. So very odd. Fine, what is it that you dragged me down here for? You know, for an immortal being, I don't half spend a lot of time in the afterlife," Loki commented lightly, flicking a cube of turnip away from the bowl in disgust and then turning to look at Veles.

"Oh don't worry, you're not one of mine, so it's not like I'm taking your soul to have my nefarious way with. Now, my plan is to really mess with them up top. We are the best Tricksters around, so who better?"

"Aren't we the only Tricksters around?" Loki pointed out and Veles looked at him, and then shrugged.

"Not a clue."

"Okay. Still, how are we going to do this?'

"We're going to set up in one of the main concentration camps in Nazi Germany, I kinda decided on Auschwitz, seeing as the only other one I could think of was Dachau, and Prentice gets a little pissy when I step on his turf."

"Prentice?"

"Yep. Look, do you know how many concentration, POW, re-education and relocation camps there are all over the damned world? Hundreds. I've created an ankou for each of the main ones that kill the most, and placed other ankou to base themselves between a few that still kill their prisoners but not at prolifically as others. They aren't to collect souls of anyone other than those prisoners. And should the death gods of other religions ask for their help, they're to give it. Auschwitz is one of the biggest killers. I have two ankou situated there, Prentice is the main ankou situated at Dachau, there is another there as well," Veles explained, ignoring Loki's somewhat dazed expression.

"So… we go to Auschwitz? And do what? I don't collect souls, Vel," Loki pointed out and Veles smirked at him and grabbed a chunk of turnip.

"Oh no, we won't be taking any souls. Told you, I have enough ankou for that. We are going to fuck with the Gestapo's heads!" Veles said with a maniacal cackle, before placing the turnip in his mouth and crunching on it, grinning at Loki.

"Okay… I'm in. But… how can we avoid the most awkward family reunion of the past six millennia?"

"Hmm? Oh, don't worry, I know how to sort that one out. Just trust me."

"I always do, my little Death God."

"I'm not the little and there had better have been a capital G in that title," Veles added, eyes narrowed on Loki, who just sighed and rolled his eyes.


	2. Part Two

"Erwin Jahnke? Fritz Ruske? Good, follow me. We're going to get you out of here. The handsome man next to me is called Lo and he will be leading you out, whilst I go be the distraction. All good? Go, go on. Lo will get you over the border but that's as far as he can get you." Veles told the two men in front of him, who were looking at him, still a little wary, even after having been living in the same quarters together for over six months. All four of them were wearing the usual stripped clothes and pink triangle.

"You – How do you know this is going to work and that you aren't just signing all of our death warrants? I want out, we both do, hell, all of us do, but not if it is just going to get us killed sooner," Erwin told him, whilst Loki was whispering something to Fritz.

"I understand your feelings, and I can't promise that you won't get captured again after Lo has left you, but I  _can_  promise you that we won't get caught here. Now. So do you still want to do this?"

"Yes. Yes, we do," Fritz said, moving to stand behind Erwin, whilst Loki stood at the back, keeping watch at the door.

"Good. If we're going to do this, we need to do this now," Veles told them, then looked past them at Loki who nodded his head.

"Yeah, Vel, you need to mess with the 'Stapo. I'll take them to safety. Have fun. And the next time, I get to play with the big bad prison guards," Loki muttered, then grabbed Veles' collar and yanked him to his chest, pressing a sharp kiss to his lips, then pushed him away. Veles just looked at him a little dazed, whilst the other two prisoners gaped at them.

"Erm…" Veles blinked and then shook his head and shoved Loki further away from him. "Is this really the time for that? Go! Flee! Now, think blue hair or pink hair?"

"Purple."

"Even the Gestapo don't deserve that. Don't be cruel, Lo," Veles muttered with a scowl, then hurried past the three and ran out of the shed, making sure that no one bar his ankou and Loki would be able to see him, and headed towards the guard's quarters.

* * *

Veles leant against the wall of the shed that they were staying in, picking at the thread on his pink triangle as he waited for Loki to come back. Hopefully everything had gone smoothly. The other seven people that they had gotten out, had been alright. Though Veles felt that he could have done without the impromptu blessing from the priest they had helped. Loki had found that a little amusing.

"Master," Veles nodded his head in greeting as an ankou passed by him, then looked to the side when Loki appeared next to him, chewing on a Twizzler. "Did you stop by my realm just to get those?"

"Nope. I stopped by New York to get them," Loki told him with a wide smile, passing a Twizzler over to Veles, who looked highly unimpressed.

"So you though 'Oh, instead of heading straight back to Vel to show him that I'm got out okay, I'll nip on over to New Fucking  _York_  to grab some sweets before I bloody return!'" Veles hissed at him, making Loki look at him with wide eyes and back away slightly.

"Oh come on… You knew I'd be fine! What is going to kill me? Not a bleeding random Nazi!"

"What about an angel? What about them? They see you, they realise that you're fucking  _alive_  and they kill you! What happens then? What do I do then? I won't fucking know, I'll just be stuck here in this hell hole, waiting! Never knowing that you won't be coming back because you're too much of a fucking moron to know when you should… when you… Lo," Veles deflated and sighed, letting his head drop and looked at the floor.

"I'm sorry. Vel, I really am. I didn't think," Loki mumbled, making Veles give a dry chuckle and shake his head.

"No, you never do really. Look, you can distract the 'Stapo next time. I'll get the prisoners out," Veles said with a sigh, pushing off of the wall he was leaning on. "I've gotta get back to the rock shed. Gotta do some mindless slavery to keep the prison guards happy."

* * *

**Two Years Later**

Veles and Loki were sitting in a pub in Edinburgh, talking in low voices, both having stayed in Auschwitz until its liberation and then not really having much else to do with themselves. It seemed like the war was coming to its final stages, Hitler had died some months before, for which many of the ankou were disappointed for not having been the one to collect his soul. Veles had tried to point out that the man had not one ounce of magic in him, and therefore did not fall under their jurisdiction.

"So… what do we do now? I mean… Everyone else, besides the Japanese, admitted defeat two months ago. What do we do now?" Loki asked, slumping over on the table in front of him, whilst Veles watched him in amusement.

"I have absolutely no idea. Really. None. I've got nothing else thought up. And clearly you haven't. Guess we just go back to what we normally do in peace time."

"What? Find more delicious candies, kill people that are getting too far above their station and generally just cause havoc?" Loki asked, though it was muffled through his arms.

"You perhaps do that. I take souls, make random creatures when I'm really bored and… okay, so I wreak havoc as well," Veles admitted and then gasped, making Loki sit up and look at him.

"What?"

"Maybe I could bring something back that was extinct. A dodo! I could bring a dodo back!" Veles exclaimed. Loki gaped at him and then shook his head and pointed out the flaw that he could think of.

"A dodo? Doesn't strike me as being very… magical."

"It's come back from the dead. That's fairly magical," Veles pointed out and Loki cocked his head in acquiescence.

"You do have a point there. Coming back from the dead is somewhat magical. Or Christian. We do that too," Loki commented lightly. Veles snorted in amusement and picked up his pint, before he gasped and dropped the glass, bringing his hand up to grip at his hair. "Vel?"

"Lo! They're all-" Veles gasped and gave a choked scream, dropping from his chair and falling to his knees on the floor. Loki quickly jumped from his own chair to kneel next to his friend and waved away the concerned looking landlord.

"Veles? Tell me what's wrong."

Veles jerked suddenly and then gasped, before he looked up and gripped onto Loki's shirt. "We need to go to Japan. Now," Veles choked out, before letting go of Loki's shirt and disappearing.

"Well shit," Loki muttered, then disappeared from the pub before the landlord could come over and question the whereabouts of his now absent friend.

* * *

Loki gaped at where he had reappeared. It was complete devastation. Veles was talking to a group of seven ankou, the only ones left from the camps, the original five having returned back to their own continents. There were several reapers, yamaduts and, of course, shinigami wandering around the massacre as well. Loki swallowed heavily and then hurried over to Veles.

"—going to be some survivors. It doesn't matter anymore whose jurisdiction they fall under. We need to collect the lost souls. I've discussed it with the other gods here, take them to the Underworld, once there, we can sort out where they actually should be. Just… we need to help them. Calm them down, tell them what they want to hear, keep them as calm as possible. It's – we're going to be here for quite a while," Veles told his ankou, who all nodded before they moved away and began to spread outward, Veles having been standing pretty much on the epicentre.

"What the hell happened here?" Loki hissed to Veles, who as crouching by the charred remains of a small child. Veles sighed and brushed his hand over the skull, releasing the soul. He whispered something into the little girls ear before the soul disappeared with a nod.

"A bomb. They dropped an atomic bomb on this city and well… this is the result," Veles told him, waving his hand outward and then heading over to where a tall man was standing, watching the hundreds of demi-gods collecting souls.

"Veles," The man said in greeting, eyes straying to look at Loki and then dismissing him as unimportant.

"Izanami. This is – how did we not see this coming? How are we to deal with this? It will take us weeks to collect all the souls of those killed on impact, and the ones that die soon after," Veles muttered, watching as another god appeared at the site, bringing several yamaduts with her. "Huh, never thought I'd see Mara."

"No, none of us expected to see her. However… there was a POW camp here. It was not just our people that were affected. All religions have been hit," Izanami told him, before scowling and walking towards a shinigami that seemed to be arguing with a yamadut.

"Shit. Lo, we're gonna need your help here, but soon enough your Christian reapers and possibly that angel of death, Azrael? Him, he's gonna be here soon too. What do you want to do?" Veles hissed at him, keeping an eye on an ankou that seemed to be glaring at another shinigami.

"I don't… What can I do, Vel? I can't stay here if someone who will know who I am arrives. Besides, how will I be able to help? I don't deal in death," Loki pointed out and Veles looked at him, then glanced over his shoulder, nibbling on his lip.

"Right. Okay, I can make you a temporary ankou. It'll make you able to collect souls and erm… well it'll hide you from the senses of anyone that may know what you once were. Sound good? Because… I really need help with this. I let go most of the ankou I made! I never realised something this catastrophic was going to happen," Veles hissed, looking on the verge of a mental breakdown. Loki looked at him with wide eyes and then nodded.

"Fine. Zap me. Make me a temporary ankou," Loki told him, feeling he had made the right choice when Veles smiled at him and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"Thank you. Just, stick with me until you feel you know what to do. Then you can go and find other souls," Veles told him, before he placed his hand on Loki's jaw, making the Trickster gasp as he felt a rush of Veles' magic run through his body.

"Oh wow. That was… tingly." Loki told him with a grin, then moved to follow Veles over to where there seemed to have been a group of people hiding from the oncoming bomb.

"You feel for the soul, if they seem to be stuck in their body, and then give a mental tug on it, to pull it free. Sometimes they will have left their body with no assistance. I think the others have collected most of those though. Normally people that died slowly, or were prepared for their death, are the ones that leave their body," Veles explained to him, crouching by three bodies, clearly a family. Loki crouched down opposite him and then placed his hand in Veles' when the God held out his own hand.

Veles then moved Loki's hand, palm down, over the charred, barely recognisable face of the body nearest to Loki and looked at him.

"Can you feel the soul? It's barely there and there is no magic, which will make it harder for us, but it feels like a tiny flickering flame. Can you sense it?" Veles asked him in a soft voice. Loki concentrated and then felt exactly what Veles had described.

"Yeah. You're right though, it's barely there. I can hardly sense it," Loki told him, still concentrating on the soul.

"Good. Now, the magic I've given you? Wrap it around the soul you can feel and then tug it. Just gently pull it outwards, towards you," Veles told him softly. Loki nodded his head and then did exactly what Veles told him to do, pulling the soul towards him. He actually found that easier than the actual sensing of the soul. "Loki. You can stop now. He's standing beside you."

Loki opened his eyes and looked at the young man, no older than late teens, standing beside him, looking a little confused.

"What happened?" The young man asked, looking at Loki, who smiled at him weakly.

"Er…well… you died. I'm to take you on to the next stage," Loki told him, then winced at how indelicately he put it. The young man looked at him and then sighed but nodded.

"I understand. I need to be judged. Enma is to measure my soul. We are taught this. I should not make things difficult for you by not accepting my fate," The man said, making Loki look at him in shock for his surprisingly mature approach to it.

"Lo. Take him to the entrance. Charon will be there to take him to where he should be. I'll follow quickly with the other two," Veles muttered to him, and Loki nodded, and stood up, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Come on. The hard part is over now," Loki told him and then took him down to the underworld, leaving Veles to collect the souls of the other two in his family.

* * *

**Three Days Later**

Even Loki, having the new powers of being an ankou, felt the second bomb hitting in a city not all that far from Hiroshima. Loki watched as the impact of the bomb made all the death gods present collapse to their knees with a cry of pain. Veles having been talking to Mara at the time and both falling with a pained cry.

"Shit," Loki hissed, abandoning his pursuit of a soul he had sensed near the edge of the city and running over to Loki, glancing at where three shinigami were helping Izanami and Enma stand up. "Vel. Come on, get up. You're gonna be okay," Loki muttered, gripping Veles' elbow and tugging him to stand, nodding his head in greeting, not showing the shock on his face, when Kali hurried over and helped Mara to stand.

"Yama is heading to Nagasaki with some yamaduts, Gahnesh has come to help in any way that he possibly can, though he is not sure how. Shiva is also heading this way," Kali informed them, helping Mara to stand.

"This is the only time you hear me admit this, Loki, but I would willingly give up that capital G if it meant that I would have help during this. Being the be all and end all of one religion kinda sucks," Veles whispered as he leant heavily on Loki.

"Huh, I'm gonna record that to memory. Now, what do you want to do? Should we head straight over to Nagasaki or stay here?"

"You are also a god, which gives you more power than my normal ankou. We will both head over to Nagasaki with three ankou. Once I see the damage and give my orders to the ankou, you stay with them and act in my stead. I'll come back here. More people were killed here, I'm needed here more than I am there," Veles admitted, both moving towards where the seven ankou were standing, waiting for their orders.

"Okay, I'll just do as you tell me," Loki told him, frowning at the thought of what this was possibly going to do to Veles and his ideas about mankind, which weren't all that positive before either of the previous two wars had started.

"Okay, here's the deal. Myself and Loki will be heading to the next site, along with you three, the rest of you will stay here. After I have seen the damage, then I will head back here. Should either of you three have any troubles, then you are to go to Loki. He will be acting in my stead. Understood?" Veles asked, giving a mental sigh of relief when all seven ankou nodded in agreement. "Good. Julian, you are in charge until I get back. Before we get there, same rules apply there as they did here. No distinction between religions. Just take the soul and we can deal with them once they have been taken from the distressing situation. Okay? Good. Let's go."

* * *

**Seven Weeks Later**

Veles sagged on the wall he was sitting on, just on the outskirts of Hiroshima. They had managed to collect the souls of all those killed on the impact, and now there were just the souls of those that were dying slowly. Veles felt that he could leave that to the seven ankou, giving him and Loki the chance to escape, and for Veles to take away Loki's ankou abilities.

"So we can go? We're done with all this… death?" Loki asked, sitting down on the wall next to Veles.

"We are. Come let's go back to my rooms," Veles told him in a weary voice, placing his hand on Loki's forearm and taking them to his rooms. He conjured the usual bowl of sweets and then collapsed onto the sofa that Loki normally sat on. Loki however, just nudged his feet to the side and sat down, pulling the bowl of sweets toward him as he did.

"Kali seems to have forgiven me for whatever slight she seems to have thought I did to her," Loki commented lightly and Veles shifted to look at him through his half-shut eyelids.

"Did she say why she's forgiven you?" Veles asked in a mumbled voice.

"Not as such, but I get the impression it was because of you. Or at least, my relationship with you."

"What? Dysfunctional?" Veles muttered, making Loki snort and shake his head.

"Something like that. Vel, you okay?" Loki asked, frowning at something that Veles had no idea what.

"Not really. I just – I want to forget it all," Veles mumbled, then sat up straight on the sofa and glanced at Loki. "I know how you can help me forget it if only for the time being. I just want a happy moment. Plus I feel like I've been bloody celibate for the past three months. Ugh. I need to get laid and you, my loveable little ex-ankou, are going to help me."

"Ex-ankou? You took them away then?"

"Yeah, you lost them as soon as you entered here. So? Willing to break my unintentional period of celibacy?"

"I don't think three months can count as a period of celibacy," Loki commented lightly, then grinned when Veles kicked him lightly. "Fine. To the bed."

* * *

Veles sniffled and rubbed his cheek against the pillow as he slowly woke up. He stretched his arm out and frowned when he noticed that he was alone in the bed. Opening his eyes and pushing himself up to sit in the bed, his frown deepened when he didn't sense Loki anywhere in his realm. Nor did he sense him anywhere in the mortal realm, meaning the Trickster was deliberately cloaking himself from him.

"Wanker," Veles muttered, before falling back on the bed and covering his eyes with his arm, ignoring the ache he was feeling at having been seemingly abandoned by his only true friend he had. He did, however, now understand what Kali had meant with her ominous warning regarding the Norse god.

* * *

**Eighteen Years Later**

Veles sneered at the soul in front of him and then glanced past him to where another ankou was collecting the soul of the vampire the man had killed.

"Guess he was just a little too different to you, huh? Stupid prejudices. Well, good news! He killed you as you killed him, so both of your families are without you. Excellent planning there. Come on. I'll take you to the next place," Veles muttered, harshly grabbing the shoulder of the soul in front of him, and dragging the silent soul down to the underworld.

Veles returned to the place the two bodies would be found, and sighed. He then scowled and spun on his heel, navy blue cloak whirling around his ankles, even as he stopped with a shocked inhale and gaped at the man standing sheepishly in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing here? Do you not need to run and hide?" Veles finally snapped, sneering at Loki as he gathered his wits about him and carried on, storming past him.

"No. Wait! Aw, come on, Vel! Don't be like that! Let me explain!" Loki pleaded, trailing after the pissed off God, but trying not to be within reaching distance, should Veles spin around and try to punch him. He was delicate!

"You know, Kali warned me of you. Seems to think she should take me under her wing or something. She can be a little mothering sometimes. It's rather off-putting. Still, she warned me that you'd break my heart, assuming I have one to break. Safe to say that if I did, I don't have one anymore. Cheers for that," Veles muttered, seemingly following a trail through the thicket of trees that only he could see, and Loki had absolutely no idea where they were. And also held on to a tiny hope that Veles wasn't leading him somewhere discreet to kill him. He had the idea that the God of Death may not have a problem with killing him, with or without an archangel's sword.

"I didn't… I had a reason! I – can you just stop for a minute and let me speak! Christ!"

"Did he exist?"

"Pardon?" Loki asked, gaping at Veles, who had stopped and turned to look at him curiously.

"Christ. Did he actually exist?" Veles asked him and Loki took a deep breath and just stared at the God steadily.

"Does it matter whether he did or didn't? Look, can we please go back to you place to talk?  _Please_!" Loki begged and Veles stared at him with narrowed eyes before nodding sharply.

"Fine. Come," Veles told him shortly, spinning on his heel once more and leading the way deeper into the large trees.

"Where  _are_  we?" Loki asked, after having followed Veles in silence for ten or so minutes.

"Socialist Republic of Macedonia."

"Okay… why?" Loki asked, feeling slightly confused as to why they were in a country that Loki couldn't ever think he'd actually been to before. If he had, he wasn't sober enough to remember.

"You'll see," Veles told him, and Loki swore he could hear the damn smirk in the God's voice. Loki sighed and carried on trudging through the bracken of the forest, cursing whenever he tripped on a root, or got caught. "Wearing those ridiculous jeans won't help you any."

"You're wearing a damned cloak. I don't see you having any troubles."

"This is my forest. It won't try to stop me. You, on the other hand, have pissed me off, so why would it want to aid you and make this any easier for you?" Veles asked him, dry amusement evident in his tone.

"Sure, laugh it up," Loki muttered, then frowned when he realised something that Veles had just said. " _Your_  forest? Where are we in er… Sooo…" Loki trailed off as he realised he had completely forgotten where they were.

"Socialist Republic of Macedonia."

"Right. There. Where abouts there are we?" Loki asked, eyeing a suspicious looking branch that seemed to have been reaching out for him, before hurrying up to catch up behind Veles.

"Veles."

"I know your name," Loki muttered petulantly.

"Do you? I had wondered. And I meant the name of where we are. We're just outside of Veles."

"You have a city named after you? How is that fair? I want somewhere named after me!" Loki huffed, still having no idea where he was, and willingly admitting, if only to himself, that he was now lost. And had been since he had come to Veles.

"You do," Veles told him dryly, making Loki gape at the back of his head.

"Eh?"

"There is a Gabriel Island near Canada," Veles informed him and Loki's nose wrinkled at his old name.

" _That_  name doesn't count."

"Very mature. We're here," Veles said, coming to a stop in front of a positively ancient looking tree in the middle of the forest.

"And here is? It's a tree," Loki pointed out, and then flinched when Veles glared at him venomously.

"It's  _my_  tree. It grew when I was created. And is the main source of my magic. Tell anyone of this and I will hunt you down and drag you down to the very pits of my underworld with the last dregs of my magic," Veles informed him, making Loki's eyes widen in shock and then for him to nod his head furiously in agreement. He may be a very powerful archangel, but he willingly admitted to anyone that should ask, that Veles scared the shit out of him at times. He was pretty sure it was the glowing skin.

"Right. And we're here because…"

"I haven't been back here for over two centuries. I needed to come back to just… ground myself. I've been a little scatty and just… not very sympathetic to any of the souls."

"Because – is it? Was it—because of me?" Loki asked in a quiet voice, then jerked his head to look at Veles when the God snorted.

"No. Don't be so presumptuous. It was the wars. I lost any kind of belief in my people. Sure it was only really the muggleborns and half-bloods that truly joined the fighting. But it affected all of them. I didn't have any sympathy for the ones that died after that," Veles muttered, scowling at nothing and then placing his hand on the tree. His eyes closed and he gave a sigh of contentment that shocked Loki, and made him twitch to touch the tree as well.

"So it's not my fault?"

"Oh no, I didn't say that. You abandoning me and then hiding and refusing to answer my calls just made it happen sooner than it possibly would have without your tender mercies," Veles muttered, eyes still shut and leaning on the tree. Loki eyed him and blinked as his skin began to glow even more than usual, and more than even some angels did. It was a touch creepy.

"Can I explain why I left and then hid? Before you condemn me to Hades or wherever it is the bad wizards and witches go."

"Hades is Greek. I just have my underworld. Each soul is treated equally no matter their actions. They all end up the same place. I don't give a damn what they really did in life, they ain't gonna be able to do anything once they're dead. And they get a clean slate once they are reincarnated. Prejudice isn't bred, it's learnt. The only thing at fault is circumstance. And no one can change that," Veles murmured and Loki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Interesting view on things."

"Interesting or not, I'm the be all and end all of my religion, so my view is the only one that counts. Right, I'm done. Let's go to my rooms. Then you can explain yourself. And a word of warning. You won't be getting any sugar until I am satisfied with your reason," Veles told him, and before Loki could even form an argument, Veles had dragged him down to his rooms.

* * *

"Sit. Explain. Then perhaps you can eat," Veles told him shortly, shoving him towards the sofa and then taking a seat on the chair opposite the sofa. Loki grumbled under his breath, but sat down and took a deep breath.

"I could feel myself falling. Which, let me tell you, is about as pleasant as it sounds," Loki muttered and Veles raised at eyebrow at him.

"So?"

"So, I was falling from my father's grace. I was losing all my angel-like powers.  _My_  magic. Once an angel falls completely, they either end up in Hell with Luci, or they become human. Neither of which seems all that great. If we become human, we lose or memories and become reborn. I wouldn't have remembered you. I decided to leave and keep what little grace I had, and also the memory of you and everyone else, rather than stay and just… fade away," Loki told him quietly, not looking up to see Veles' reaction.

"So you left to keep your magic?" Veles finally asked, after Loki had almost exploded with the tension.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Fine. And it's safe now? You won't fall?"

"Not just this minute, no. I just needed to reaffirm my faith in my father. I only left in the first place, because I couldn't stand the fighting between my brothers. I didn't lose faith in my father. But working with you and doing what you did, twenty-four hours, seven days a week, for three months nearly. I couldn't understand why," Loki muttered, shaking his head and scrubbing at his face with his hands.

"You do know that none of us have any control over humans, no God does. We are all charged with giving our creations free will. We can't stop them from killing one another. That wasn't your father's fault," Veles told him calmly, still not showing any emotion, either positive or negative, in his tone of voice.

"Oh I know that. I'm an archangel, Vel, I know the way of things. I just couldn't understand how he couldn't be there! You were! Kali was! Enma, Izanami, Yama! They were all there to ease their peoples suffering, but my father wasn't. And don't think he couldn't be there. He's God, of course he damn well could be!" Loki hissed in anger, fist clenching. He jerked in shock when he felt Veles place his own hands on Loki's fists, and saw that the God was sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

"Your father's creations vastly outnumber my own by millions. And the others? They have help. They aren't the only higher beings of their religion. I was only there because I'm the only God for my people. The others were there because they were directly affected. They all dealt with death in some way, so they were to be there. You possibly didn't notice, but there were gods that would occasionally come to Auschwitz. However, because I was there, and you were there, the other gods focused on other areas of pain, death and suffering. We made it so that they weren't needed."

"He could have just come down for a minute. Even a minute," Loki muttered, realising that this route was dangerously heading towards him possibly falling again. Well, until Veles smacked him, rather hard, over the back of the head and made him yelp in pain. "What was that for?"

"You're a god now! You know how difficult it is! There weren't all that many Christian people there, his people were suffering more in other places. And why the hell do you think he made all of you angels? To just make Heaven pretty? I'm not a fucking Christian, never have been and I certainly never will be, but even I understand that he made you to be his eyes and ears and voice amongst his creations. Stop being a jerk, Gabriel," Veles snapped, making Loki gape at him, both for his harsh words and for the use of his real name.

"Well… that's sort of what He said. Only… kinder. And without the hitting," Loki muttered, then flinched when Veles shifted.

"Oh stop being pathetic, I'm not going to hit you again. And what do you mean? You went back to him? I thought you were hiding."

"I can't hide from my creator unless I'm here. He's always known where I was, but He let me hide from Michael and Raphael. He is the one who created this – this persona for me," Loki told him with a small smirk at Veles' stunned face.

"So he knew?"

"Yeah."

"And you made me believe that any minute your father could find you and drag you back to Heaven for some sort of re-education, and you  _knew_  that he wouldn't! You're a twat, Loki."

"Possibly. Sorry about that."

"Sorry isn't going to cut it. You owe me big time," Veles told him with a pout, before he stood up from the table and moved to sit on the sofa next to Loki. He then huffed and waved his hand at the table, making the usual bowl of sweets appear.

"What's this?" Loki asked, picking up a jar of pale yellow dust, which Veles promptly snatched out of his hands and hugged to his chest.

"Sherbet. It's mine. You have your unhealthy addiction to Twizzlers and sweets in general. I have sherbet. You don't get any," Veles snapped at him, twisting the lid off and licking a finger before he dipped it in the powder and popped his finger back in his mouth.

"Right," Loki said slowly, shaking his head and moving back to the bowl on the table. He grabbed one of the Twizzlers and began to chew on it. "So what now?"

"What do you mean?" Veles asked, dipping his finger back in the jar and looking at him curiously.

"Well… what about us?"

"Is there an us? I mean, what are we? Friends? Acquaintance? Fellow gods? I don't think any of those require for us to be an Us," Veles pointed out, licking his finger, but not taking his eyes off of Loki.

"Well no. But we are more than that, aren't we? You're the only God that ever actually willingly searched me out and stayed with me for any length of time. You've only ever asked for my help once. And you've never actually expected anything of me. You're my closest friend, Vel," Loki told him, grinning when he noticed that Veles was staring at him unblinkingly, finger still in his mouth.

"Huh. That was profoundly emotional for you, Loki. You've made me all uncomfortable and itchy. Don't do it again," Veles told him finally, once he had gathered his wits about him and Loki snorted and nodded his head in agreement.

"Okay. Still doesn't answer what we do though."

"What did your father say? I'm guessing that given you're still you, that he's not dragged you back to the ranks. So does that mean he accepts your decision to not return, still?" Veles asked him, going back to his sherbet once more.

"Yeah, He accepts it. He likes you," Loki added with a snicker, which turned into a full out laugh when Veles jerked and spilt a fair bit of sherbet over himself, causing him to curse, then vanish it with barely a thought.

"He likes  _me_? Why in magic's name is he watching me?"

"Because you spend a lot of time with me."

"Ah, he needed to make sure that his favourite son's friend was suitable enough. I understand, Daddy's-Boy," Veles said with a sage nod, making Loki splutter and then glare at him.

"I am not a daddy's boy! I'm a rebel!"

"You're not a rebel if the one you are supposedly rebelling against, agrees with and accepts your decisions," Veles pointed out calmly, looking into the jar and then snapping his fingers and turning the yellow sherbet, pink.

"Stop poking holes in my reasonings!"

"I'm not poking holes in it, they already exist, I'm just pointing them out."

"Whatever," Loki muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.

"Oh don't be a child. Now, here's what I think we should do. I think we should team up. I've kept on those seven ankou and assigned them specific causes of death of the souls they will collect. And I've also stationed one in the America's, given my children seem to have gone back. Though no witches or wizards. Just the creatures," Veles said and paused as he pondered the possible reason for that.

"Vel? The plan?"

"Oh! Right, so my point is, I've got twelve ankou now. I'm not just a death god, I'm a God with a capital G," Veles said, making Loki roll his eyes. "But most importantly and what everyone seems to have forgotten, which is a shame, really, it is, is that I'm a Trickster God. A vengeful one admittedly, but a Trickster all the same. So imagine the fun we can have if we team up."

"So we team up and cause havoc in a deliciously amusing way amongst all the puny little mortals?" Loki asked, mischief glittering in his eyes.

"That we do, my little Norse, lowercase g, god. That we do," Veles said with a wide grin.

"And where do we do this?"

"Where else? America of course! I haven't been to the colonies in centuries! I want to see what they've done! Besides, if we go there, then the silly little hunters will only have the belief that they can kill us with, what was it again?"

"Lambs blood on a wooden stake I think. Can't remember what I came up with. I was a little inebriated," Loki admitted.

"Right, that. Still, they won't have heard of Veles the God, and they certainly won't have heard of my tiny, insignificant little forest. So we're safe. Most of them are atheists or Christians anyways, won't have heard of either of us. Well, the Loki you. Gabriel you, I'm thinking most may have heard of," Veles said with a wry grin and a shrug.

"So America?"

"Yes! Let's go mess with their minds! Oh this is going to be fun. I haven't had fun in years.  _Decades_  even! Let's go now!"

* * *

**Forty-Four Years Later**

"Okay, I still have no idea why you use that magazine for inspiration. Use your imagination, you've been doing this for millennia, why do you now need inspiration exactly?" Veles asked, sitting on the kitchen counter in their flat, which neither of them were actually paying the rent for, but their landlord didn't really care. Or know.

"Oh come on! Some of these are genius! Think about it! Alligator in the drains?" Loki said, sitting at the breakfast bar, munching on a chocolate bar and pouring over the copy of  _Weekly World News_  in front of him.

"Uh huh. Fine, but one day we will pull the midget with the axe on some poor unsuspecting couple, broken down on an abandoned road. If you can create your favourite cliché, then so can I," Veles muttered, tapping at the large jam jar, which was full of water and had a strange cephalopod in it, only it glowed. Pink.

"What  _is_  that, by the way?" Loki asked, glancing at the strange little creature, which turned and stared at him unblinkingly with its canary yellow eye.

"I call it the Octopod," Veles told him proudly, cooing at the creature. Loki gaped when the 'octopod' turned and began to make a strange cooing noise, and rubbed against the glass, where Veles' finger was.

"Octopod?"

"Yeah… well… octopus was already taken," Veles told him huffily, pouting and refusing to look up from the odd cooing creature.

"What does it do?" Loki asked, finding himself unable to drag his eyes away from the odd creature.

"Er… swim? Don't know. Isn't that teacher supposed to be taking his swan dive tonight?" Veles asked, changing the subject from his somewhat lacking new creation. Who said it had to do something anyway? Octopuses didn't. Just… blobbed about in the ocean.

"He will indeed and of course, the unsuspecting janitor needs to be there to find the body. So I guess I need to actually go and pretend to be doing my job. How come you get to pretend to be the student and I'm a damned janitor?" Loki grumbled and Veles began to snicker.

"Because you look like you're fifty and I am beautiful and youthful," Veles told him bluntly, before squawking when Loki glared at him and lobbed a Hershey's Kiss at his head.

"I do not look fifty! Mid-thirties at the most!" Loki grumbled, glaring at Veles, who placed the jam jar on the counter next to him and picked up the chocolate instead.

"Uh huh, mid-thirties, you keep telling yourself that. You do know that you look like a cradle snatcher when we go out together, right?" Veles asked him with wide, innocent eyes.

"You do not look that young! You're even pretending to be a mature student! You said you're twenty-eight!"

"Not the point. You're going to be late," Veles pointed out, glancing over at the clock and then back at the Trickster.

"I'm never late. Besides, he isn't going to throw himself out of the window without a little help, now, is he? So it's not gonna happen without me."

"That was me hinting at you to leave," Veles pointed out with a pout.

"Oh, I know," Loki said with a wide grin on his face, then he sighed an stood up. "You do have a point though. I'll head out then. What are you going to be doing, exactly?"

"Working on my octopod."

"Right. Well, maybe you should work on its name as well," Loki commented and then vanished from the room before Veles could retaliate.

"There's nothing wrong with your name, is there, Octi?" Veles asked, beaming when the creature made a watery purring noise and pressed itself to the glass. "Exactly!"

* * *

Veles watched as the two hunters walked into the bar, and watched the taller of the two make his way to a table with two other students, whilst the shorter one walked over to the bar and immediately began to flirt with a young woman there.

Veles smirked when he realised that making these two miss the obvious signs of what they were hunting, and therefore completely look over Veles and Loki, would be easier than they had originally thought it would be when they sensed the two hunters.

"Yeah, we both had that professor for Ethics and Morality," Veles glanced over at the taller hunter once more and snickered to himself, before he turned away and made his way over to where the other hunter was leaning against the bar.

"Hello. You do not seem to be the normal – ah – customer that I normally see here," Veles said, his accent coming across as very heavily Russian accented, as he slid onto the stool next to the hunter at the bar. "My name is Veles, and you are?"

"Er… hi," the hunter said, sounding a little confused and smiling warily at him, clearly wondering why this random stranger was talking to him.

"So, you go to the university?" Veles asked, whilst also mentally asking himself  _why_  he was pretending to be Russian. He normally pretended to be Swedish. They had more fun in his eyes.

"Er… no. No, I don't. I'm here with my brother. Er… just… we're reporters you see, and well… the death of that professor got us interested so we um… we came to investigate it. Don't suppose you know much about it, do you?"

"No, not really. He was not my professor. I am doing my masters on mythology and folklore," Veles told him, mentally cackling when Dean suddenly looked a little more interested.

"Really? So… have you noticed anything odd in that building? The one that the professor killed himself in."

"Not really, but it is supposedly haunted. Have you tried a purple nurple?" Veles asked Dean with a wide smile, inwardly cackling when Dean jerked and looked at him, shocked at the abrupt subject change. Time to get the hunter drunk.

* * *

"So? Do they suspect you? What do they think? What did they say? Well?" Veles asked, practically pouncing on Loki as soon as he walked in the door. Loki laughed and nudged past Veles to close the door behind him.

"They don't suspect me of a thing! This is brilliant! I say we do three or four more and then let them 'find me out'. You shouldn't be found out though. We might bump into them again, then it'll be your turn to mess with their heads! Oh, this is going to be fun. I haven't messed with a hunter for years!"

"We messed with those three hunters last year, Lo."

"That doesn't count. So what do we do next?" Loki asked, walking into the kitchen and casting a wary glance at the rapidly growing octopod, which was now being kept in a large goldfish bowl. "Should that be growing that quickly?"

"I've decided to make a kraken."

"Kraken were giant squid," Loki pointed out and Veles huffed.

"Yes, well he's an octopod. Deal with it. Now, I say aliens. That's always amusing. And whilst you pick your next victim, I'll work on ways to break up the dream team," Veles said, with a positively evil smirk on his face.

"Dream team?"

"Sure, why not? Go on, shoo! I'd advise that creepy jock. He needs taking down a peg or two."

"Of course, Dear," Loki muttered, grabbing his newest issue of  _Weekly World News_  and beginning to flip through it. "Do you think aliens like ballroom dancing?"

"What? Maybe. Probably more slow dancing. You know, like to  _Lady in Red_  or something."

* * *

Loki jumped when his phone began to ring in his pocket, and frowned, knowing that it had to be Veles, given they only had one another's numbers.

"Yeah?" Loki asked, holding the phone to his ear, whilst half-heartedly sweeping the floor.

" _Houston, we have a problem,"_  Loki rolled his eyes at the sound of Veles' voice.

"What have you done?"

" _Me? I haven't done anything! Look, the creepy hunting duo have called in back-up. Someone older, wiser and er… kinda weird lookin'. Like… a trucker that has no truck, or love of roadside diner food, or indeed anything else truckery."_

"You do know you make no sense whatsoever, right? What the hell is wrong with you recently?"

" _Nothing, look, they've called in back-up, so… it looks like that last one was_ the _last one. For here anyways. They've pinned it on you, Lo. We didn't even need to nudge them in the right direction. So just pin up your favourite articles in your locker, lure them to wherever the hell you think would be a good idea and let them 'kill' you. I'll pack up and we can move on. Oh, and Octi has um… We should move somewhere near the sea,"_ Veles told him quickly and then hung up before Loki could answer.

"Well shit. What the hell has he created now? Right, articles, candy and um… the auditorium," Loki muttered to himself, making the broom vanish with a snap of his fingers and then disappearing and reappearing in the locker rooms.

* * *

"How much  _were_  you drinking when you came up with the whole stake thing? I mean, really?" Veles asked, appearing in the entrance to the auditorium moments after the three hunters had left. Loki stepped out of the shadows by the stage and smirked at him, before shrugging.

"A lot. So then, my feisty little Slav, where shall we go next?" Loki asked him, walking up to Veles and pulling him against him.

"No idea. Where haven't we been for a while?" Veles asked, running his hands up and down Loki's chest as he looked up at him.

"Well, you did say it had to be near the ocean too, I can't believe you shoved that damned thing in our bath! And who isn't going to notice a giant, pink glowing thing?"

"Hmm, you are right. Maybe I didn't think this through. Oh well, nothing to do for it now. I'll shove it near Russia, they don't notice shit like that," Veles commented lightly, ignoring the look of disbelief that Loki was shooting him.

"They don't—you know what? I'm not going to ask. I've learnt that most of the time I just don't want to know."

"Ah good, took you long enough. So I have a question," Veles said, as he grabbed Loki's hand and apparated them to their apartment.

"Shoot. Though not literally. I know you, you'd take that as an opening to shoot me with something. And it'd hurt," Loki said with a pout.

"What? No it does not! Stop being a baby. Besides, I'm not going to shoot you. I  _am_  going to ask why you are so interested in the Winchester's however. And don't deny it. If you weren't, we'd have left as soon as they entered the town. So tell me why they are so intriguing to you," Veles demanded, narrowing his eyes at the Trickster.

"Ah, it's er… you know that horrible feeling that you and all the other gods and goddesses have been feeling? Well… it's them. Those two. They're vessels," Loki told him, wincing and looking around the room at anything, just so long as he could avoid Veles' gaze.

"Vessels? Those two? Who? Who are the somewhat unlucky angels that will have to use those bodies? I mean, both are very handsome but well… neither one has enough common sense between them to fill a tea spoon."

"Oh, that's mean. I like it," Loki said with a grin, when flinched when Veles glared at him. "Fine, Michael and Lucifer. Happy? Come on, we need to go before Mikey comes to investigate who said his name."

"He's a bit of a 'tard if he feels he has to see the reason someone uses his name. For one, it's one of the most popular names of western society and two he's a bloody archangel, chances are people are going to use his name at least once in their life. Moron," Veles muttered, but he still followed Loki as they walked through the flat, checking to make sure they hadn't left anything behind.

"Well yes, Mikey isn't the most intelligent of my brothers. All brawn and no brain, that one. Shame. My father clearly isn't completely without fault," Loki told him, and Veles snorted before vanishing from the apartment to head for their next destination.

And to drop Octi into the Baltic.

* * *

**One Year Later**

"This is a little odd, you have to admit that. I mean. I like  _Groundhog Day_  as much as the next guy, but really? And why do you need me?" Veles asked, pouting from where he was sitting in the café that Sam and Dean had just walked in.

"You're a God of Death too, right? So you can take his soul down before my father or anyone else from up top notices that I'm fucking with the Winchester's," Loki explained to him, calling over the waitress for more syrup.

"Dexter Hasselback, he was passing through town last week when he vanished," Veles heard Sam say behind them, and Veles sighed and looked over at Loki, who was currently looking like… well Veles had no words.

"By the way, can I let Dex out yet? His whining is driving Ira up the wall. It's driving me up the wall as well, actually. If only because when he whines, Ira whines at me. Have you ever heard an ankou whine? They have had years to learn the most annoying ways to do that. Ira can now make a one syllable word have fifteen syllables. I know. I counted. Please let me let him out," Veles hissed, making Loki snicker but shake his head.

"Nope, he's got to stay there for a while. Besides, you know he'll only be there for all of the days we will be reliving."

"Oh, well when you put it that way, let's throw a bloody party," Veles grumbled, stealing the syrup and pouring it into a glass, before he then added three tubes of sherbet and began to stir it with his finger.

"Your sugar habits put mine to shame. I look like a diabetic compared to your daily intake of sugar," Loki commented, looking at the sticky concoction with disgust.

"Hmm. Possibly. Now, what are you going to do because they're leaving," Veles commented lightly, making Loki jerk in his seat and watch as the brothers left the café.

"Shit, right, come on, you've got a temporary soul to collect."

"What?  _Now?_  Give them time to see the damned Mystery Spot! I put a lot of damned effort in that place! Do you know how hard it is to glue a table to a ceiling? Very is the answer. Especially when you're fucking partner just decides to fanny about with my swirls," Veles spat, making Loki pale a little and then nod his head.

"Fine, they can see the Mystery Spot. Come on. Oh! I know how to kill him!" Loki said, and with a bright smile at Veles, he skipped out of the café.

"How no one knows that man is gay is beyond me," Veles muttered, leaving some money to pay for their food. The fact that it wasn't US dollars meant nothing to him. It was muggle at least.

* * *

"Wow, uncanny," Veles narrowed his eyes at the sarcasm in Dean's voice as they watched the two walk through the Mystery Spot that night, and turned to Loki.

"Kill him," Veles hissed, and Loki snickered but nodded his head and snapped his fingers, making the 'owner' appear.

"What the hell are you doing here?" The owner who went by the name Mr Carpiak, but was in fact an ankou who had been stationed in America called Julian, exclaimed loudly, glaring at the two shocked hunters, and then giving off a shocked and somewhat scared look at the shot gun aimed at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We can explain," Dean said, quickly putting his gun away when he saw that it was a civilian he was aiming at. Or at least, what he assumed was a civilian.

"You robbing me?"

"He's a very good actor. I'm glad you chose him," Loki muttered in Veles' ear, making Veles smirk smugly.

"Oh he's very well trained. Julian, shoot him," Veles whispered as they watched Dean start to put his gun down. Julian fired his own gun, seemingly accidentally, and Veles stepped out fo the shadows, only being visible to Loki, Julian and Dean's soul.

"Dude! He shot me! I'm… is this me dead? Am I dead? I had months left! I'm not supposed to die now!" Dean exclaimed, watching Sam hugging his body to himself.

"Oi, you, shut it and come with me. Bloody stupid idea. Relax, I'll be bringing you back soon enough. Just need to ferry your soul away before someone notices that shouldn't," Veles snapped, and Dean spun to look at him with wide eyes.

"Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter. Come on."

* * *

"You should learn to look both ways, think about that guy's MOT costs! Going to cost him a fortune. Not to mention his insurance premium," Veles muttered, helping Dean's soul up from the floor where his body had landed after being hit by a car.

"I just got hit by a car," Dean muttered, slightly dazed and blinking down at his body on the road.

"Yeah, so you did. Come on. Let's be having you. Oh Magic, did I just say that? Ugh. Right, let's go."

"But… Sammy!"

"Yeah, terrible shame that. He'll be grand. And really, you don't actually have a choice in the matter," Veles told Dean, grabbing his elbow and dragging him down to the underworld. Sam's distraught cries for his brother fading behind them.

* * *

"You know, in my time I've seen a lot of odd deaths. Being flattened by a desk? I thought that just happened in Loony Toons," Veles commented to Dean's soul, who just looked a little dazed.

"Me too."

"Huh, well this'll be something to talk about with the other gods. I took the soul of someone that got flattened by a desk," Veles said with a snicker and then dragged his soul down.

* * *

"You should chew before you swallow. Not only will it lessen the chance of you choking to death, it is also more polite and less… cave man."

"I don't feel too great," Dean muttered, making Veles look at him oddly.

"Well, no, you're dead. Oh for the love of– Don't throw up over– I  _liked_  these robes! How are you throwing up anyway? You're a damned soul!"

* * *

"You just got beheaded by your own brother. Now that is going to leave scars. Huh. Teach you to mess with my ankou though. Julian doesn't like being tied up. Scares him," Veles told Dean, who just looked depressed as he watched Sam sob over his decapitated body.

"What's an ankou?" Dean asked quietly, not taking his eyes off of his brother. "Never heard of one of them."

"No, you wouldn't have. They aren't a part of your religion. Nor do you find all that many in America. Only one, in fact. Julian."

"Oh."

"Come on. Let's head off. You'll be seeing Sammy soon enough," Veles told Dean, wondering is Dean's soul perhaps remembered his other deaths. Or if Dean was now regretting that ridiculously selfish deal he made with the demon.

* * *

"Again? You do know this is exhausting for me, right? I feel like a bloody yoyo. Back and forth, back and forth. Just… keep him dead or leave him alone. Sure, it was amusing the first ten times, Loki, but for crying out loud, a hundred and nine? I'm knackered. Let me rest. Let him stay alive for a few more hours, yeah? Please?"

"Er…"

"Oh for fucks sake. Be back in a minute," Veles groaned and walked over to grab Dean's soul to take it back down to the Underworld. "Oh no, don't worry, you'll be back with Sammy in no time. Yep. Won't be for long, but you'll be back. Just… can you not eat any tacos this time? The trip the last time was a little nasty."

"You're a doll, Veles!" Loki called out after Veles, wincing slightly at the venomous glare Veles shot his way.

"Yeah, yeah! Can't have Daddy-Dearest find out what you're doing with his saviour, can we? Fucktard."

* * *

"Oh God. I'm exhausted. It's all well and good for you, but me? And let's not mention that Julian is now a little traumatised. He's an ankou. Do you know how hard it is to traumatise an ankou?" Veles asked as he settled on to the stool next to Loki in the café.

"Is it bad that I'm getting bored?" Loki asked, sighing and waving for the waitress to come over.

"No. I'm bored. I was bored seventy-eight Tuesdays ago. Please let it be Wednesday tomorrow."

"I don't know…"

"Lo, if you don't do it, then I will. And you know that our magics have this strange affect when they are in collision with one another," Veles warned and Loki looked at him with wide eyes.

"Right. Time to end it then? Don't want it to be 1979 when we next wake up," Loki said with a forced smile.

"At least it'd be a Wednesday," Veles muttered, Loki just ignored him and waved the waitress over.

"Miss, can we have strawberry syrup with this please?" Loki asked the waitress, who nodded her head and then walked off to place their order.

"Thank you. I've never loved you so much as I do at this point. Now, I'm to make myself scarce," Veles muttered when he noticed Sam and Dean sit down at their usual table. "Try not to get killed this time, okay?"

"They can't kill me!" Loki hissed at him, pouting. Veles snorted and rolled his eyes, then squeezed Loki's hand and walked out of the café, making the first change for Sam to notice.

* * *

**Six Months Later**

Veles sighed as he walked into the motel room that Sam had just entered, bleeding slightly heavily. He coughed loudly to gain Sam's attention and raised an eyebrow at the gun aimed at his head.

"That won't do you any good, boy. Now, you want Dean back, right? You want the Trickster that did this, dead?" Veles asked him, causing Sam to eye him warily, but not drop the gun from him.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I'm a Trickster. But not that one. He's annoyed me. Even we Trickster's know when a joke is taken too far," Veles explained, leaning back on the door and keeping half an eye on the gun, which Sam still hadn't moved to point away from him.

"How can you help me?" Sam asked him, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Simple. I can take you to him. Oh, and kill me and die," Veles added as a last note. Sam glared at him, then finally lowered his gun.

"Fine. Take me to him," Sam told him, and Veles rolled his eyes.

"So rude! You could at least say please! Come on then," Veles grumbled, grabbing Sam's wrist, chuntering about the man's height, and taking them to the Mystery Spot.

"The Trickster is here?"

"That's right. Well, you have to call him to you. Blood of a virgin, fresh. Straight from tap, so to speak," Veles told him, conjuring a piece of chalk and starting to draw some random, pretty patterns on the floor. Not that Sam needed to know that.

"Fresh blood?"

"Yep."

"Fine. I'll go get that then," Sam told him, making Veles stop and turn to face the hunter.

"You've got issues. Dean is  _that_  important to you? He sold his soul and was willing to leave you behind, yet you're willing to damn your own soul by killing an innocent? You need some serious help," Veles told him, standing up to face Sam, who just stared at him emotionlessly.

"He was my brother. He was the only thing that mattered in my life."

"You do know that incest is illegal, ri-?" Veles stopped and stared down at his chest in shock, gaping at the wooden stake protruding out of it. "Wha-?"

"I think you're the trickster! You were the one that killed my brother!" Sam yelled, making Veles look at him, even as his vision began to fade, stupid bloody blood loss. Hopefully Sam wasn't observant enough in his anger to notice that Veles' blood was sparkling.

"He's not me. But thanks for killing off my rival. He was beginning to annoy me," Veles glared at Loki, who had appeared behind Sam, before he fell back to the floor and closed his eyes, breath stopping.

* * *

**Back Six Months**

"If Asia plays, I'm hunting you down," Veles muttered when he felt the time shift and knew that they were back to the beginning of this palaver.

"I like Asia," Loki told him lightly, and Veles opened his eyes to glare at the Trickster.

"Freak. So it's over, yeah? No more backing and forthing?"

"Is that an actual word?"

"I'm a God, it is now. So?" Veles asked, and Loki grinned at him widely and nodded his head, moving over to sit on the bed next to Veles.

"Thank you for doing this for me, by the way," Loki told him, and Veles looked at him, smiling softly.

"Lo…"

"I know. I'm amazing and everyone would do anything they can for me!" Loki said, and then yelped when Veles shoved him off the bed.

"You ruined what could have been a beautiful moment. Jerk."

* * *

**Three Months Later**

Veles winced and then looked over at Loki, who was humming as he sorted out the next prank he was going to pull, with some help from a disturbingly interested Julian.

"Lo," Veles said, getting the attention of the two sitting at the kitchen table.

"Yeah? Vel, you alright?" Loki asked, looking at Veles in concern.

"No, I've got to go, Lo. Something is kicking off in France. If you need me though, just call for me. You know how. I don't think it'll take too long though. At least, I hope it doesn't," Veles muttered with a frown, then glanced at Julian.

"You are to stay here. I'll have three ankou with me, so you just need to stick around and carry on doing what you do," Veles informed his ankou, who nodded his head and turned his attention back to whatever they had been planning.

"Same goes for you, Vel. If you need me, just call me," Loki told him, and Veles nodded before he vanished from the house and appeared in the French offices of the Ministry of Magic.

* * *

**Nineteen Months Later**

Veles growled when he sensed that Loki was, once again, in a spot of trouble. Grumbling to himself, he glanced to make sure that the wizards, vampires and veela currently signing the new peace treaty of Magical France all seemed to be doing fine, he nodded with a pleased smirk, then vanished from France.

He appeared in what looked to be a warehouse and saw that Loki seemed to be trapped in a circle of flames, and that there was an angel and the Winchester's opposite him.

He stepped out of the shadows, making all four men turn to look at him, Sam gasped in shock, Dean looked confused, whilst Castiel paled slightly and Loki beamed at him.

"I knew you'd come if I called for you!" Loki exclaimed, making Sam turn to gape at him, instead of Veles. Veles, rolled his eyes and walked over to the circle of fire, long, regal cloak trailing behind him.

"You? But… I killed you!" Sam exclaimed and Veles turned his attention to the taller hunter, narrowing his eyes.

"I know. It hurt. I still have that bone to pick with you. Now, what has Loki done to you this time? You're all alive, so he hasn't repeatedly killed one you over and over, besides, he prefers to not repeat pranks. Loki, the little angel looks a little pale, what did you do to him?"

"You know him? Who the hell are you?" Dean asked, but it wasn't Veles who answered him. It wasn't Loki either.

"He's a God," It was Castiel.

"What? A god? Like a hindu god or something?" Dean asked, looking at Veles like he didn't quite believe it.

"No. And why does everyone make my g lowercase? It's very demeaning. What the Christian God is the only one allowed to have a capital G? Right, that's fair," Veles sneered, glancing at Castiel dismissively, then looking back at Dean and Sam. "No, I'm Veles, God of the Magical Race. I have my own race of people and your little war that you've got going on? Not gonna affect us. However, Loki here…"

"You do know he's not called Loki, right? That he's been lying to you if he told you his name was Loki," Dean told him spitefully, and Veles mock gasped and clutched his heart, turning to look at Loki with wide, hurt eyes.

"Lo! You lied to me all this time? How could you? I thought we had something! I am now going to go hide in a dark room and – wait, oh! You mean the whole archangel thing? Please, he told me that in eighteen eighty-three!" Veles told them, then sighed and looked at Dean. "Sorry to disappoint."

"V-Veles. Why are you here?" Castiel asked, head bowed slightly in respect of the powerful being in front of him. Veles was far more powerful than Castiel, even more so than Gabe. He was a God, his power was on par with his own father's, therefore Castiel knew he didn't want to upset this being in front of them.

"Loki prayed to me. I came to help him. I will drop anything within reason, should Gabriel need me," Veles told him. Castiel's head snapped up to look at him with wide eyes, and Veles knew Castiel had guessed exactly what his relationship with his brother was.

"How are things in France going, by the way? Given you're here, I'm going to guess that they've stopped killing each other off," Loki said breezily, as though he wasn't currently trapped in a circle of flames that will kill him should he fall into them.

"They were signing the peace treaty when I left them," Veles told him, ignoring the confused looks Dean and Sam were shooting them.

"Wait, there hasn't been a war in France for quite a while now! What are you talking about?" Sam asked, and Veles rolled his eyes.

"My people are hidden from you. Well most of them are. You get the odd moronic vampire or werewolf that comes out of hiding. Though all that magic I shoved into the lands here those years back seem to have er… messed with them a little. Whoops," Veles said, looking sheepish before he snorted and shook his head. "I did tell them that America was out of bounds for a reason. It's their own fault. Oh! Octi had some babies!"

"Really? Are they just… creepy as their mother?" Loki asked warily and Veles glared at him.

"Father, I made it a male. I don't know how it reproduced. Odd. Though they don't glow, so maybe he molested some poor non-magical octopus," Veles commented and then sighed and looked at the other three outside the circle. "Now, you three are going to leave. Gabriel no longer belongs to your God, I've stolen him. And, Castiel, your father doesn't mind."

"What?" Dean asked in confusion, and then gaped when Veles stepped through the fire and placed a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"Lovely talking to you, good luck with that Lucifer problem you've got. See you around maybe. Should you survive, I mean."

* * *

Veles and Loki appeared in Veles' rooms in the Underworld. Loki turned and smiled at him widely, placing his hands on Veles' waist.

"I'm yours? Really? You do know that Castiel knows that we're more than friends, right?" Loki told him, one hand slowly trailing up Veles' side and then moving to cup the side of his neck.

"I know. And you are mine. Your father accepted that, you told me that yourself. You're still an archangel, but you're  _my_  archangel," Veles muttered quietly, moving his own hands to wrap his arms around Loki's neck. He leant up slightly on his tip toes and rubbed his nose against Loki's. "You know that bad feeling?"

"Yeah?"

"This is it."

"I know."

"And we can't hide down here until it's over. We're all involved. Even if you're not longer a Christian celestial being. Your brother is a bit of a cock, Gabriel."

"Luci? Yeah, he is a bit, isn't he? You know… He was my favourite brother before he went completely batshit and then fell," Loki said, a little sadly, and he moved to bury his face in the crook of Veles' neck.

"Lo… come on," Veles said softly, moving back and then pulling Loki behind him towards the bed.

They stopped at the side of the bed and Veles looked up at Loki, slowly beginning to unbutton the trickster's shirt, pressing kisses to his skin as it was slowly unveiled. Veles pushed the shirt from Loki's shoulders, and they allowed it to drop to the floor, before Loki pulled Veles against him and kissed him, moaning when Veles opened his mouth and allowed his tongue entrance.

Loki snapped his fingers, making the rest of their clothes vanish, and causing Veles to chuckle against his lips, before he pulled back and looked up at Loki with heavy-lidded eyes.

"You're mine, and I take care of my own," Veles told him firmly, moving back to climb on the bed and then shifting to lie in the middle of the bed, Loki following closely behind, then moving to rest over Veles, between his legs. Both were breathing heavily, and gasped every time their erections brushed.

"Vel…" Loki gasped, thrusting against Veles, and groaning. Veles gasped and clutched at Loki's shoulders, moving his legs to wrap them around Loki's waist and moaning deeply when he felt Loki start to stretch him.

Soon Veles was moaning loudly as Loki stretched him with three fingers, brushing against his prostate constantly and making Veles arch and press down onto his fingers. He groaned when Loki removed his fingers, and moved to link their hands with his free hand, even as Loki slowly began to thrust into him.

Veles opened his eyes and looked at Loki above him, before he leant up slightly and pressed his lips to Loki's, moving their joined hands to rest by his head, even as he moved his free hand and wrapped it around his own erection.

Loki's thrusts began to quicken, hitting Veles' prostate almost every time, and causing Veles to cry out and arch up, his own pace around his erection quickening to match Loki's thrusts.

Veles whined in the back of his throat, throwing his head to the side as he felt his climax approach, and he clenched around Loki, making the trickster groan and move to push his face into Veles' neck, licking at the skin there. They both cried out their completion within seconds of the other, both breathing heavily as Loki pulled out and then collapsed to the side of Veles.

Veles shifted to lie on his side, facing Loki, and traced the archangel's face gently with his fingertips, he shifted nearer and pressed a soft kiss to Loki's lips before pulling back and pressing against him. Loki tugged him as close as possible and pressed a kiss to the top of Veles' head.

"I love you, Veles," Loki whispered, smiling when Veles tightened his grip around Loki and muttered something into his chest, sighing as sleep took him.

* * *

**Six Months Later**

"Loki, this is not a good idea. We should not be entering this place, it's a bloody stupid idea," Veles hissed as they both appeared in front of the Elysian Fields Hotel before them.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Loki said, though his tone of voice belied his feelings on the matter.

"Loki…"

"Look, you need to be in there for your people, and…" Loki paused and swallowed heavily. "Sam and Dean are in there."

"Oh shit. Fine. Come on then. Let's get those two out of there before they do something stupid. You do know that Kali and Ganesh are in there, right?" Veles whispered to him, linking their fingers and squeezing as they stepped through the doors.

"I know, I'll just have to use you to hide behind," Loki told him with a cheeky grin, getting a glare from Veles in return.

"Kali will castrate you if you do that," Veles informed him and then quietened when they approached the closed doors to the grand ballroom, where they could sense several other gods in gathering. Taking a deep breath, Veles shoved the doors open with his magic and stepped inside, Loki following closely behind him, their hands still clasped together.

"Can't we all just get along?" Loki asked loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the room and making Veles groan.

"Gab—" Veles glared at Sam and robbed him of his voice before he could say Loki's real name.

"We don't need to hear from you two, thank you. Sorry we're late, Loki lost his invite," Veles said with a venomous smile that made the other gods flinch and look away, though Kali just smiled sheepishly.

"Why did you bring him here?" Baldur asked, sneering behind Veles at Loki, who just smiled widely and stepped forward, allowing everyone in the room to see their joined hands. Though only Sam and Dean seemed shocked.

"We're here to address the elephant in the room!" Loki said, making Ganesh glare at him and start to stand up. "No, not you, Ganesh. The Apocalypse."

"Loki… Look, Lucifer is strong, really really strong and I honestly don't like our chances against the guy. And dragging these two to a place and then trapping them here? You're kinda doing all the hard work for him," Veles told the gods, before Loki turned to glance at Sam and Dean.

"The adults need to have a conversation," Loki told them, before snapping his fingers and making Sam and Dean disappear from the room.

"Why did you bring him here?" Odin asked, sneering at Loki, though he clearly wasn't all that angry at Veles. For some reason, most gods he came across seemed to treat him like their child. He had no idea why, but Loki did enjoy mocking him for it.

"You know that we are a pair. Where one goes, the other follows. I wasn't even going to come here, but Lo said we should. You should thank him, really," Veles told him and then sighed. "Look, Loki and I, we can talk to those two, see if they will listen to reason. You lot just… stay here and plot or something. Or! Or you could all head on back to your people. Check on them! We should be with them, not planning ways to fuck 'em all royally!" Veles told them, glaring at them before tugging Loki's hand gently and making them appear in the room Loki had sent them to.

"—gank a few freaks along the way, if we're lucky," Dean was saying to Sam when they appeared in the room. Veles rolled his eyes and sat on the sofa, whilst Loki chuckled and leant against the arm.

"And when are you two ever lucky?" Sam and Dean spun around to face them, and Dean sneered.

"Oh you know what? Bite me, Gabriel."

"Maybe later, big boy," Loki said with a grin, before he yelped when Veles pinched his side.

"Maybe never, or you will be sleeping in the Arctic for the rest of your life. Which may actually be shorter than you think," Veles told him, making Sam snort and then cough to cover it up.

"We should have guessed you two would be involved. This had your stink all over it from the jump," Dean said in a self-depricating manner, and Loki looked at him, genuinely shocked.

"You think either of us had anything to do with this? Please, we're here to save your asses," Loki told them, and moving to stand in front of Dean, whilst Veles rolled his eyes and stood from the sofa, moving to stand just to the side of Loki, winking at a disturbingly silent Sam.

"You wanna pull us out of the fire?" Dean asked him disbelievingly.

"Bingo. Those guys are either gonna dust you or use you as bait, either way, you're uber-boned."

"Loki, really? Uber-boned? I have honestly got no idea where you come up with half the crap you say," Veles said before Dean could respond to Loki's taunts. "Look, you two don't really have a choice in the matter. And I don't want Loki here when Luci arrives. And we all know he will. All four of us have shockingly shitty luck when we're alone, putting us together and I'm actually shocked that this place hasn't just been nuked."

"Why do you care?" Dean asked them, and Loki went to answer before Veles waved his hand and robbed him of his voice, stopping him.

"Those people down there? They're my family. Sure, they treat Loki like he's the son in law from hell, but well… he sort of is. It would seem I'm actually the only one capable of loving the moron. To me though, they're family! We may be different religions, but sometimes our people cross over. And I have people in all of their main domains," Veles explained to them, and he could see Sam's eyes softening in sympathy, though Dean still looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"Do we have a chance? Against Satan, I mean," Sam asked, and Veles sighed, ignoring Loki's gestures for him to return his voice.

"No, not a snowballs chance in that Christian Hell of yours," Veles told them regretfully.

"So why don't your just zap us out of here?"

"Because I can't. Kali has your blood and so you're trapped here. Sure, I could break the spell, but the consequences won't be nice. We're gonna have to get your blood back from her," Veles told them, wincing as he thought about how to go about that.

"Well what does that mean?"

"Told you, we need to get it back. Loki and I will try that one."

"Okay, well we're gonna take the hors d'ouvres from the freezer with us," Dean told him and Veles glared at him.

"Forget it, they're already dead. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. You can't save everyone," Veles told them, before glancing upwards then looking over at Loki. "You gonna shut it with the wise-cracks?" Loki nodded his head and Veles waved his hand and gave him his voice back.

"We're gonna get your mooks outta here," Loki said, and Dean looked at him speculatively.

"They called you Loki, right?"

"So?"

"So they don't really know who you really are?" Dean said and Loki smirked, whilst Sam watched them warily and Veles mentally groaned.

"Told you, I'm in witness protection."

"Well then, how about you do what we tell you or we tell the, uh, Legion of Doom about your secret identity," Veles looked at Dean with narrowed eyes, which Dean didn't notice, but Sam did and shuffled away slightly. "They don't seem like a pro-angel kinda crowd."

"I'll take your voices away," Loki said, stepping closer to Dean, who smirked.

"We'll write it down."

"I'll cut off your hands."

"But then people are gonna be askin' 'why you guys running around with no hands?'" Dean said, and Veles noticed that Loki was now worried, and decided to step in.

"You won't tell them, because you can't. I control magic, I can makes things happen that you can't even begin to imagine. Including taking away your ability to communicate the words Gabriel, Archangel or anything along those lines when in relation to  _Loki,_ " Veles told them, stressing the name to get his hint across. "So, sorry, but your bargaining chip has left the building."

"You can't do that!" Dean exclaimed and Veles just raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"I just did. Now, you two stay here and we'll go get the blood. Just… try not to get into any trouble, okay?" Veles said, and then cursed at his words, but shrugged and vanished from the room with Loki.

They appeared in the hallway that they sensed the room with Kali in and turned to look at one another.

"We're fucked, aren't we? Kali likes me, but she won't give us their blood. And you? They're gonna find out your persona," Veles whispered, leaning against Loki and gripping his fists into his jacket.

"Yes, we will," Both spun to see Kali standing there, and Veles closed his eyes in defeat. When he opened them he found himself in the ballroom once again, seated in a chair next to Loki.

A few minutes of tense silence later and the doors were opened once again when Sam and Dean practically fell through them, two gods leading them inside and shoving them into two seats near them.

"How long have you known?" Loki asked Kali, who sneered at him, though just looked at Veles apologetically.

"Long enough, though not as long as our little Veles has probably known," Kali told him and Veles flinched as though he had been physically struck.

"How's the rescue goin'?" Dean asked snidely, making Veles turn to glare at him, knowing his eyes were glowing in anger when Dean flinched away from him.

"If you two had stayed in that fucking room, then at least you two wouldn't have been in here. Fucking morons," Veles hissed, before Kali moved and looked over the four of them.

"Well, surprise, surprise. The trickster's have tricked us," Kali said and Veles sighed and slumped in his seat, whilst Loki tried to reason with them.

"Kali… don't. At least let Veles go. He had nothing to do with it. he was only keeping a secret that I asked him to keep. You know how he is. Let him go."

"You're mine now, and you have something I want," Kali said, moving to sit on the arm of Loki's chair, smoothing her hand up his chest and making Veles growl, before she pulled Gabriel's sword out of it's hiding place.

"You kept it on you? Sentimental twat!" Veles hissed, not taking his eyes off of the sword, though it couldn't actually kill him, it would hurt him though.

"An archangel's blade. From the Archangel Gabriel," Kali announced and Loki shifted uncomfortably in his chair when all the gods glanced at him, before twisting to look at Veles.

"That had capitals, right?"

"Wanker."

"Okay, okay, so I got wings, like Kotex, but that doesn't make me any less right about Lucifer," Loki told them, and Veles moaned and let his head fall back.

"He's lying. He's a spy," Kali said and Loki looked at her in disbelief.

"I'm not a spy! Why would I spy? I'm not even part of that religion anymore! Veles took me and made me his!  _He's_  my God now! We're trying to save you. I know my brother, Kali. He should scare the living crap out of you," Loki said, looking at her, before he leant back again and looked at the other gods, "You can't beat him. I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends."

"Your story. Not ours. Westerners, I swear. The sheer arrogance. No offence, Veles, no one truly counts you. You are based all over, after all," Kali said and Veles just waved his hand to show he understood. "You're not the only religion, Loki, and He's not the only God. And now you think you can just rip the world apart. You're wrong. There are billions of us and we were here first."

"I told you! That isn't my religion anymore!" Loki said, but Kali silenced him by placing a finger to his lips.

"If anyone gets to end this world, it's me," She told him, then leant over him and lowered her voice. "I'm sorry." She then quickly brought the sword up and stabbed Loki in the chest.

"No!" Veles screamed, tears springing in his eyes, even as Sam grabbed him to stop him, just as a white light began to shine out of Loki's eyes and he cried out in pain.

"This is crazy," Mercury whispered, whilst Veles refused to take his eyes off of Loki's body, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. Sam didn't let go of him arm, even as Dean stood up, out of his chair.

"They  _can_  die. We can kill Lucifer," Kali stated, almost heartlessly, given she had just killed Loki.

"Alright, you primitive screwheads, listen up," Dean said, making Sam and Veles both turn to look at him, somewhat incredulously, even as Veles inched towards Loki's body and pressed his fingers to Loki's cold wrist, and whispered something under his breath.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sam muttered to Dean, who shifted to look at him slightly.

"I'm out of options," Dean hissed at him, then turned back to fully face the gods. "Now on any other given day, I'd be doing my damndest to kill you, you filthy murdering chumps. But er… hey, desperate times. So although I'd love nothing better than to slit your throats, you dicks, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you ice the devil. Then we can all go back to ganking each other. Like normal. You want Lucifer? Well the dude's not in the Yellow Pages, but me and Sam, we can get him here."

"No!" Veles exclaimed, before Sam nudged him to shut him up, making Veles slump back in his seat, but shift to be closer to Loki's body.

"How?" Kali asked Dean, who smiled at him charmingly.

"First you let those main courses go, then we talk," Dean told them, and then smirked at their silence. "Oh, we can either gank the devil together, or you lame asses can eat me," Dean paused and looked down at the table, looking a little ill. "Literally."

* * *

For some reason that Veles couldn't even begin to comprehend, Sam seemed to see it as his duty to watch over Veles and treat him like an untrained child, as opposed to the God he actually was. However, it did mean that he was with the two brothers when they helped the rest of the humans get out of the hotel.

He was also with Dean when they passed the Impala, which had a certain archangel inside.

"Psst, Dean. Dean!" Dean glanced at Veles and then the Impala, whilst Veles just rolled his eyes and then glared at Loki. "Don't look at me. Especially like that. You knew the plan!"

"Seconds before you bloody did it!"

"Yeah, yeah, but did you have to whisper those threats to my cooling corpse? Hardly grieving widow behaviour."

"Widow? You get out of that car right now, so I can rip your cock off and shove it down your—"

"Dude!" Dean interrupted and Loki glanced at Veles before looking at Dean.

"Act natural and get in," Loki hissed and Dean glanced at Veles before walking around the car and climbing in, Veles just deciding to appear in the back seat next to Loki. "Oh now… I knew you'd want to be with me in the backseat."

"You two do anything on my backseat and I'll take that sword from Kali and kill you myself. Not that it seemed to have worked," Dean grumbled. "I thought you were dead for good this time. So did he!"

"You think I'd give Kali my real sword? That thing could kill me! And Vel knew I was fine," Loki said, whilst Veles scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"So what the hell do they have in there?"

"Oh, that was me! I made that. Very proud too, that sword in there is like any other angel's sword, except it won't kill archangels. Lucky for Loki, unlucky for anyone that wants to use to kill an archangel," Veles said in a very proud-as-punch voice.

"So…er… go snag our blood, would you?" Loki asked Dean, who gaped at him incredulously.

"What?"

"I heard you in there, Kali likes you. You can get close. Lift the plasma and then we vamoose. Veles already can, but for some reason he refuses to leave me behind. I'm flattered, Vel, I really am, but you need to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you. You're one of mine now, and I told you, I don't leave my own behind," Veles told him through gritted teeth.

"No," Dean said, interrupting whatever Loki would have said in response and making both gods turn to gape at him. "Hand over the real blade. Better yet, why don't you sack up and help us take out Lucifer?"

"You can't be serious," Loki said, whilst Veles groaned and slumped down in his seat. He hated stubborn people on the best of days, and today was certainly not a good day in anyone's stretch of the imagination.

"Deadly."

"Since when are you butt-buddies with a bunch of monsters? That's all they are to you, aren't they?"

"Hey!" Veles hissed, and Loki placed a hand on his thigh to stop his complaining.

"Okay, Sam was right, it's nuts, but it's the best idea I've heard," Dean told him, and Veles whined in the back of his throat, getting the attention of the other two in the car.

"We're leaving. You and Sam can follow us or not, but we're leaving now," Veles told them, and Dean looked at him, stunned.

"They're your family! You admitted that! You can't leave them!"

"They just killed my lover. I won't forgive that in a hurry, even if it was a fake body."

"Maybe, but you still care about them, don't you?" Dean asked him and Veles shifted to look away from him, moving his hand to snag Loki's.

"Dean…" Loki started, but was interrupted by Dean.

"They're gonna die in there without you."

"I can't kill my brothe,." Loki finally said after a few moments of silence, and Veles squeezed his hand in comfort.

"Can't or won't?" Dean asked, and Veles gaped at the entirely hypocritical question in his mind.

"You can talk! This wouldn't have fucking happened if you'd let your brother die like he should have! What, you think that just because they're not human, that they don't feel the same for their family!" Veles hissed, and Dean looked at him in surprise, before Loki tugged Veles to make him back down.

"Both," Loki told him, and Dean kept eye contact with him, before shaking his head and leaving the car, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Jerk! That… jerk! Lo, you can't be expected to kill your brother!" Veles said, moving to press himself into Loki's side in comfort.

"No, no. He's right. I should be able to kill him. I don't want him to end this world. I  _like_  this world," Loki muttered despondently.

"He can't destroy it, you know. For one, humans are freakishly homicidal beings when given a, to them, good enough cause. And also? I won't let him. But Lo… He's your brother."

"I kno—he's here."

"What?"

"Lucifer, he's here," Loki whispered. Veles looked at him in shock and then glanced over at the hotel in front of them.

"What do you want to do? You know I can break the spell if you want to run. I just take you down to my domain," Veles whispered, grip on Loki's hand tightening.

"I can't… I can't leave them. Lucifer is my responsibility," Loki whispered, and Veles nodded and pulled Gabriel's sword out of his cloak and handed it to him. They both turned when the lights of the hotel began to flicker, then they vanished from the car and appeared back in the hotel, behind an over turned table, where Sam and Dean were hiding.

"You okay?"

"Not really," Loki muttered, getting the attention of the two brothers, who stared at them in shock. "Better late than never, huh?"

Dean and Sam just gaped at them, clearly unsure as to what to think, before Loki suddenly stood from behind the table, not before gently pushing Veles into Dean.

"Luci, I'm home!" They all heard Loki's announcement and Veles groaned and tried to get out of Dean's grip, but the hunter wouldn't let him go. They shifted and looked over the table however, to see that Loki had sent Lucifer flying though the main doors to the room and was now standing in the middle of the room, sword at his side. Lucifer strode forwards, but stopped when Loki held out his sword to stop him. "Not this time."

Loki glanced over his shoulder and motioned for them to come from behind the table, whilst also helping Kali up off the ground.

"Guys, get them out of here!" Loki told them and Veles soon began to struggle against Sam's hold on him, Dean having passed him over as they stood up.

"No! I promised you! I promised that I wouldn't leave you behind! I'm not doing it, Gabriel! I'm not leaving you!" Veles shouted, struggling furiously against Sam, who yelped and dropped him when he bit him.

"Veles, you have to leave, this is between me and Lucifer," Loki told him, before he pulled a twig from his pocket, making Veles freeze and stare at him in horror. Sam took that opportunity and grabbed him.

"No…" Veles whispered, just as Loki looked at him apologetically and then snapped the twig, and set it on fire. Veles let out a choked scream, spitting blood down his chin, before he arched in pain and then slumped in Sam's hold, unconscious.

* * *

Veles opened his eyes and just stared up at the ceiling of the Impala, not saying a word as he shuddered, no longer being able to feel Loki anywhere. No longer having any bond with him.

"Veles! You're awake! How are you? What did he do to you? We're on our way to South Dakota, but Gabriel should be able to find you, right?" Sam rambled on, not noticing that Veles was staring at him with dull eyes, having only moved his head to the side.

"He's dead," Veles told him, then moved his head back to stare at the roof, ignoring the almost deafening silence his announcement brought.

"What? How do you – What do you mean?" Sam asked him, turning in his chair to look at Veles in shock and a little bit of horror.

"I mean, he's dead. Lucifer killed him. I… I can't sense him anymore," Veles whispered, closing his eyes and turning his head away from the two in the front.

"Fuck! What the fuck can we do now?" Dean exclaimed, slamming his hands on the steering wheel.

"We kill Lucifer. If not that, we trap the fucker back in his cage in Hell," Veles said in a dull voice that made Sam flinch, Dean however narrowed his eyes and looked in the mirror at the God.

"Trap him? How? I thought the cage was gone now."

"No. Gabriel told me that it's still there. We planned it. Should things go completely tits up, then we'd get the four rings of the Horsemen and shove Luci back in. The rings are the key. And guess what boys, everything has just went tits up. Lucifer has just killed my lover so I am going to kill him," Veles told him, glaring up at the roof of the car, and missing the disturbed look the Winchester's exchanged.

"Well, we've already got War's and Famine's," Dean informed them, and Veles shifted to look at them, slightly impressed despite himself.

"So you have two already? Good. I'll help you get the other two and I'll help you push that bastard back in," Veles told them with a growl, moving back and closing his eyes, mentally searching for the bond he knew was no longer there.

* * *

Veles leant against the wall in Bobby's living room, narrowing his eyes at the three hunters, rolling his eyes at the amount of angst going on between the two brothers.

"This is ridiculous. I've told you that Sam won't have to give up his body to Lucifer if I have anything to do with it. Now can we stop with all the ridiculous angst, it's making me want to read Twilight, just so I can cheer up a little," Veles grumbled, making Bobby grunt in amusement, whilst the two brothers just gaped at him.

"Twi– I don't wanna know, man. You promise me that Samm—" Dean was interrupted by his phone rining, which Veles thought was a blessing in disguise. "Hello?"

"Who is that?" Veles asked, wondering who the hell else, besides Sam, would ring Dean. Not that he didn't think Dean had no other friends. He just didn't think Dean had any other friends.

"Cas?" Ah, the angel, he'd been wondering why he hadn't seen him since he had entered this petty war. Veles nodded to himself and leant back to listen to half the conversation.

"Is he okay?" Sam asked, moving off of the cabinet he was leaning on and looking at Dean.

"We all thought you were dead, where the hell have you been?"

"I didn't think he was dead. I had no idea he was even missing," Veles muttered, ignoring the brief glare Dean sent him. He found nothing about either Winchester, the least bit scary. Bobby's beard on the other hand…that terrified him. His hat too.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked Castiel, making Veles pay more attention. Perhaps he was going to see the beginnings of an epic gay romance between hunter and… angel. Veles giggled to himself and then coughed when he saw that Sam was looking at him in confused amusement.

"Nothing. Just a thought I had," Veles muttered, snickering once more before he sobered as he couldn't help but wonder what Loki would have done to the pair.

"You wanna elaborate?" Dean asked after a brief pause, looking somewhat agitated, though if Castiel was anything like Loki, then Veles figured that look was common place when in contact with the being.

"Loki was shit at elaborating anything other than pranks, as well," Veles commented lightly, and Sam threw him a glance that Veles wasn't sure he wanted to decipher. He was fairly certain it was pity. Which, coming from Samuel Winchester, meant you were truly down on your luck.

"So you're in a hospital?" Now  _that_  caught Veles' attention and he straightened up.

"A hospital? He's an angel. What in the name of Magic is he doing in a hospital?" Veles asked, looking at Bobby, then Sam, before he turned to look at Dean's back.

Dean shook his head, clearly stunned by what he was hearing, which Veles actually wanted to know but didn't think anyone would appreciate if he asked them to put the angel on speakerphone.

"Well, I gotta tell you, man, you're just in time. We figured out a way to pop Satan's box," Dean said and Veles couldn't help but snort at the elegant way Dean put it.

"Pop Satan's box? Anyone else feel like we're planning a gang raping of Lucifer?  _That_  won't end well for anyone…" Veles muttered and Sam choked on a shocked laugh, whilst Bobby just rolled his eyes and wheeled himself over to his desk.

"It's a long story, but – look, we're going after Pestillence. Now. So if you wanna… zap over here," Dean said and Veles rolled his eyes.

"Technically, they're flying. Just… really quickly. And invisible. Sort of. I think. Loki may have been lying to me on that one. I pop, they fly. His God might be able to zap though," Veles muttered, and both Bobby and Sam gaped at him, whilst Dean glared at him and moved further away so that he could listen to Castiel.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked and Veles began to get a really bad feeling in his stomach.

"Oh dear…"

"What, you're out of angel mojo?"

"Mojo? What the hell is mojo?"

"Human…. Wow. Sorry."

"Well that's shit. The little angel is now human. Huh."

"Well look, no worries, Bobby's here, he'll wire you some cash," Dean said, rubbing at his face as he slumped down in defeat a little. Bobby looked at him sharply and Veles snickered.

"I will?"

"No, Dean, where's the little angel-human-thing?" Veles asked, pushing away from the wall and walking to stand in front of Dean, who was looking at him with a frown.

"Huh? Cas, where did you say you were?" Dean asked into the phone and then looked at Veles. "Delacroix."

"Right, okay. Tell him I'll be right there. You two go get yourselves a nice ring. I'll bring the angel to you. Here. Have this," Veles said, throwing a ring to Dean, who caught it and looked at it in confusion.

"Er…"

"It was made with silver and cast with the blood of a leanbraioch. It means that, even though neither of you are mine, I will be able to sense you. Well, I'll sense the ring. Wear it and me and the little angel will be right with you."

"You do know that you'd come up to his shoulder, right? You can't really call him little," Dean pointed out, then yelped and jumped when Veles glared at him.

"Vengeful Trickster God. Don't be messing with me, Deany-Boy," Veles said, then disappeared from the room.

* * *

"So. John Doe, huh? No, "I am Castiel." Or whoever the hell your vessel is? Couldn't be polite and tell them your name?" Veles asked as he leant against the door to the room Castiel was in.

"I did not know what to tell them," Castiel told him, dipping his head slightly so that he didn't look Veles in the eye.

"Did they tell you? About Gabriel, I mean. Did they tell you about Gabriel?" Veles asked, walking into the room. He judged by the look of confusion on Castiel's face, that no one had contacted him before he contacted Dean.

"I have only spoken to Dean since I woke up here. Where is Gabriel?" Castiel asked, looking past Veles as though looking for the missing angel.

"He… Lucifer – Lucifer killed him. I'm going to help you and the Winchester's shove Lucifer back into his cage, then I am going to just… I'm not sure. Lucifer killed Gabe, he killed Ganesh, I don't really have anyone else left that I speak to on a regular basis. I guess I'll just do what I did before I met Loki. Though… I do need to find someone."

"Lucifer killed… why?"

"Gabriel tricked me. He stole something that weakened me and then made the brother's take me out of where Lucifer had us trapped. I would have saved him, but…" Veles shrugged and sighed. "You know Gabriel. He had to deal with 'family business' alone. Look, this is depressing. Let's get you sorted out and head back to Dean and Sam before they get themselves killed. They're worse than I was, when I was human."

"You were a little… accident prone." Castiel told him with a wry grin, making Veles look at him in shock.

"You knew who I was when I was human?" Veles asked him, whilst he placed a hand on Castiel's forehead and closed his eyes.

"I saw some of what Harry Potter did. You impressed many of my brothers, myself included. Then you just… disappeared. I am assuming that is when you became Veles?"

"Hmm? Possibly. I was changing for a while before I truly became a God. And that still never stops being weird to say. Now, you're er… you're gonna feel a little… high," Veles told him, then pushed some magic in the ex-angel, grinning when he heard a gasp, then a groan. "Feeling good?"

"I… yes. What did… why is everything tilting?"

"Ah, er… Well, we need backup in this, right? And well… you're not technically part of the God Squad anymore, so… it's less 'Onward Christian Soldiers' more 'Sweet Googamooga, the pagans are coming.'. You're one of mine. Sorry about that. I can take my magic back from you, but well… Loki nearly fell so long ago and he described it as… well it wasn't pretty how he described it. I've given you back… what is it you call it? Grace? That. Well, I've sort of given you back your Grace, just… Veles style," Veles told him with a sheepish grin, getting a dazed one back from Castiel.

"I don't… I should thank you—"

"But I've just kidnapped you from your family and forced you into a whole new religion? Yeah. I get it. Really, I do. Keep the magic until this is over, then you can decide what you want to do. If it helps, you'd be the first angel, well… sort of. Gabriel was mine as well towards the end," Veles said, hoping his face didn't show the pain he felt at the mention of Gabriel.

"You felt his death then?"

"I did. I feel all of my creations deaths, but Gabriel was closer to me than anyone else I've ever known. I'm not giving up though. He wouldn't want that. So come on. Grab your clothes, get changed and we'll get to Sam and Dean. Should you wish to stay in my religion, then I'll take you to my realm at some point. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have some hunters to… er… save? Help? Whatever. Chop chop!"

"You are different to any other God I have met."

"Glad to hear it. Get dressed little angel," Veles told him, then spun on his heel to leave and give him some privacy. Not that Castiel probably appreciated the gesture. He'd learnt that angels weren't all that big on learning the meaning of privacy.

* * *

"We have three rings, now we need to go to Death and get his," Veles announced, walking into Bobby's living room, returning back from a short visit to Russia.

"Oh? Really? How are we gonna do that?" Dean asked sarcastically, and Veles raised an eyebrow to look at him.

"I don't expect you to just up and start worshipping me, I'm not your God and I won't ever be, given you're a muggle, but I would like if you started showing me a little respect," Veles hissed and Dean shifted uncomfortably, then flinched slightly when he caught the admonishing looks Bobby and Castiel were sending him.

"Sorry."

"Quite. Right, as I was saying, we need to go to Death. I know where he is. Don't ask me how, it's something I can do. So two of us can go to him, and the other two can go and stop the vaccinations from leaving and turning the whole of America into slathering moronic beasts."

"You have such a way with words, Veles," Sam muttered, then frowned and glanced at Bobby. "What about Bobby?"

"What about him? I am assuming that he won't be going with either group," Veles said with a negligent wave of his hand, frowning as he glanced off at something only he could see.

"Well… can't you heal him? Make him walk again? Then he can help! We need as many people in this, as we can get!" Sam explained and Veles looked at him, before he sighed and shrugged.

"He's not… look, I'm not nice, I've never claimed to be nice, I'm here to shove Lucifer back into hell and hope that he is tortured for all eternity for what he did to Gabriel. Beyond that? The whole of America can burn for all I care, not many of my creations are here. I can get them out in time. So… explain to me why I should care. Look, if Castiel wishes to, then he can heal Bobby. I'm need to head off and see something," Veles told them, and was about to leave when Dean grabbed his arm. "Let me go."

"Dean…" Castiel stepped forwards slightly but Dean shook his head and glared at Veles.

"Where do you keep disappearing off to? We've had to do most of the work here and you keep disappearing off to who knows where! What are you doing?" Dean demanded, and Veles sneered at him before yanking his arm out of Dean's grip.

"You are not my priority. None of you are my people. In fact, Castiel is the only one in this room that is of any concern to me. I have followers, I have creations, I have people I need to keep an eye on. I'm a  _God_ , Mr Winchester. Something you seem to be having difficulty grasping. I need to head to Ireland, I have a new creation there that I wish to check up on before things with this war get to the point that I cannot leave. Now. You can all decide of who will be going with me to Death and who will be going with Castiel to stop the vaccine. Do not push me, Dean Winchester, you will not like what I do to those that annoy me."

* * *

Veles followed Dean into the restaurant that he sensed Death in, having completely ignored the demon that had been helping them. He had no use for demons, and the King of the Crossroads had made himself scarce pretty sharpish as soon as he learnt Veles' name. After that, he had ensured that he was never left alone with Veles.

"You should let me do the talking," Veles informed Dean just before they entered the main dining area that Death was sitting in.

"Why? Are we not killing him?" Dean asked him, looking confused and gripping the handle of the scythe tighter.

"No, we will not kill him. He will hand the ring over. Allow me to do the talking," Veles told him sharply, then pushed the door open and strode through them before Dean could agree or not.

"Veles. I did not know that you were a part of this," Death said, not moving from his seat and keeping his back to them, but Veles glanced at Dean and held out his hand for the scythe. Dean sighed but begrudgingly handed it over. Veles then walked over to the table and placed it down for Death to take back. He then took the seat opposite Death whilst Dean took the seat next to Veles.

"Hello again. I have not seen you for some time. Hiroshima I believe was the last time we met," Veles told him, and Dean jerked in his seat to gape at him.

"It was. Very distressing time for all involved. Tell me why you are here, involved in this? This Apocalypse will not affect the majority of your people. They have their own signs of an Apocalypse," Death pointed out and Veles titled his head to concede.

"True. However, Lucifer did something very stupid and so I have decided I will aid the Winchester's."

"This will not affect your own creations?" Death asked him, and once again Dean gaped at Veles, having obviously assumed previously that only his God created humanity. Which was a ridiculous notion, really.

"Not if I help them enough that they can finish this," Veles told him sharply, Dean looked at him with a confused look on his face, whilst Death remained as impassive as ever.

"You know what is needed to end this?" Death asked him finally, after a few minutes of silence, in which the two immortal beings stared at one another, and Dean wondered if he was going to survive this meeting, never mind the whole Apocalypse.

"I know. I've always known, since this pathetic little disagreement began again. I am prepared to shove his arse back into the fiery pit that his father created to punish his believers," Veles informed him with a sneer, which made Dean flinch and wonder if he would actually be safer sitting next to Death. "However, I will be gunning for Michael as well. I have a bone to pick with that angel too. Then… then I need to search for someone."

"May I ask what they did to you? It is not often that you involve yourself in something that has no effect on your people. In fact, it has never happened before."

"Not necessarily true. I was there to see old Louis get the chop. He wasn't one of mine. In fact, my people stayed out of that and barely strayed into Muggle areas, but even I wanted to see the beheading of a king. I like to be there for the history making events," Veles said breezily, before he narrowed his eyes and stared at a point past Death's shoulder. "But this time? They made it my business when Lucifer killed the one person I saw as my equal. Michael could have prevented it if he didn't have his head so far up his arse he looks like a flesh toned, giant snitch."

"They killed Gabriel?" Death asked, shock actually showing on his face, which made Dean frown and wonder why it seemed to be so shocking to Death.

"They did," Veles said in an emotionless voice, belying the pain he was feeling inside.

"In which case, you will be needing this," Death told him, voice somehow sounding even more angry and dangerous than before as he passed Veles his ring. Dean drew in a surprised breath when he then pushed his scythe over as well. "This shall aid you as well."

"Thank you," Veles said, taking the scythe, before handing the ring over to Dean, who just took it, not trusting himself to speak and not make a fool of himself. Like squeaking. As he was pretty sure that would be the only noise he could make.

"You are most welcome, Lord Veles," Death told him with a wry smile, which Veles returned humourlessly before he stood up abruptly. Dean glanced at him and then quickly stood too, before following Veles out of the room, nodding his head to Death before he left.

"He gave you his scythe? He just  _handed_  them to you? Why? Why would he do that?" Dean hissed once they were both in the Impala.

"You underestimate just how loved the Archangel Gabriel was. He may have been an annoying little shit that loved tricking people and had an unhealthy obsession with sugary things, but…" Veles sighed and glanced out of the window of the car. "Before he left Heaven, he was God's Golden Boy, he whined when I pointed it out, but he was the favourite. The baby of the Archangel's. Did you know, that in all the religions the adhere to that God, the only Archangel they all agree on, is Gabriel? He was… God loved him and everyone knew it. Admit it, it was hard to hate him. No matter what he did to you."

"No," Dean refused, making Veles shift to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Fine. It was hard to dislike the bastard."

"Exactly. Even Lucifer loved Gabriel. And God? Well… God has always known where Gabriel was, he gave him his persona to hide with. And, do you know what I had to go through before God actually agreed to hand Gabriel over to me? That God is a sadistic fuck," Veles grumbled, and Dean looked at him in shock.

"Gabriel was right? He wasn't just fucking with us and the other gods?" Dean asked, stunned. "He wasn't a part of Christianity anymore? He was… what? What  _is_  your religion?"

"Magic."

"Magic?" Dean stated dully, and Veles nodded, returning back to looking out the window.

"Yes. My followers and children all have the ability to use magic. Magic that  _I_  gifted them with. That is why your little demon friend refuses to stay near me or in the same room as me alone. He fears the retribution that he deserves for giving mortals a small glimpse of magic  _without_  my permission," Veles stated darkly, making Dean chuckle and shake his head before he finally started the car.

"Crowley's a bastard anyway, it's fun to see him squirm in fear of someone for once. Can you make him cry? That would make my year," Dean said with a wide grin as he looked over at Veles. Veles looked over at him and smirked, before he shook his head.

"No, it is better to make him ponder what I will be planning to do to him once this is all over," Veles informed him and Dean chuckled, returning to look back at the road.

"So, we have all the rings now. What happens next?" Dean asked once they had been travelling for quite a while in a comfortable silence.

"There is nothing more for you to do now except finish this. Lucifer needs to be stopped. Should Michael be stopped along with him, then even better," Veles muttered, frowning as he twisted a lock of his hair around a finger.

"What about you afterwards? You're more than welcome to stick around with us. I think Sammy's in love with you," Dean said with a grin as he looked at Veles out the corner of his eye.

"You should be kinder to your brother. He's taller than you and could probably beat you in a fight. However, I will not be staying with you long after the fight. I will stay long enough to ensure that you and your brother are safe, but beyond that, I will need to leave."

"How come? What else will you have to do after stopping the end of the world? You should kick back a little, relax," Dean told him, getting an amused look from Veles.

"I have other people to watch over. And there are several religions that are now missing a couple of gods. Foolish as they were, a few of my… children now follow those religions. I will not abandon them. I also need to find someone."

"Find someone?" Dean echoed, narrowing his eyes at the car driving at a ridiculously slow speed in front of them, before he glanced over at Veles, who was frowning at seemingly nothing.

"Yes. Last time I spoke to him, he said something rather criptic to me. I want him to explain what he meant. However, he's rather good at hiding himself. Rather like me and several other gods, should we feel the need."

"Can't you sense him?"

"I can only sense those I had a hand in creating, I did not create this person. I will have to go about it the old fashioned way."

"Ah, the internet," Dean said sagely, and Veles looked at him with a strange look on his face.

"No. Asking around, and in some cases, causing grievous bodily harm. You do know that the internet was not always available, do you not? In fact… there are many of my people that still do not use it."

"What? Why the hell not? They're missing out on some excellent… sites," Dean finished with a faint blush creeping up his neck.

"You would have got on better with Loki than you think, had you got to know him better. And my people have a different type of technology that they use. They have magic, they don't really have a need for electricity. Now, enough of this chit chat, we need to get back to your brother and friend."

"Okay, fine. And for the record, Sammy would never win in a fight against me."

* * *

"This is a foolish plan," Veles muttered, throwing a glare at Crowley and smirking when the demon flinched before he could hide it, much to Dean's amusement. Veles then shifted to look at Sam, who was nibbling on his lip and generally looking like someone had taken him into a farm of puppies and had slaughtered them all in front of him. "We cannot leave the fate of this going to plan, just on your shoulders. It is a ridiculous idea and not even Loki would go for it, and let me tell you, that man was an idiot at times."

"What other plan do we have? Lucifer wants my body for his vessel, I say we give it to him and I fall into the pit," Sam said, though the look on his face was pleading with Veles to give him another option. Veles closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before opening them once more.

"A few decades ago, I did something to Loki in order to hide him from an angel that had come down for a clean up. I can… I can do a similar thing to Sam. Make it seem like Sam has drank all that disgusting blood, which I do not want to know how you got, by the way, and trick Lucifer into coming to you."

"But… I mean, I'm all for Sammy not drinking that stuff, but surely the end product is still the same. Relying on Sammy's strength of will to – to…" Dean trailed off, not being able to bring himself to say it.

"Throw himself into the pit of doom, despair, blah, blah, blah," Crowley said, and Veles turned to look at the demon with a raised eyebrow.

"You can keep quiet unless you have anything of use to say. I have still to decide what to do to you, remember?" Veles asked him, and then turned back to Dean and Sam, ignoring how Bobby was smirking at a very quiet Crowley. "You will not allow him to use your body as his vessel. We just need to bring him to us, well… to me," Veles informed them darkly, making all five men in the room look at him in shock.

"Why would you wish to go up against my brother? You saw what he did to all those other gods," Castiel whispered, looking at him with wide eyes that made Veles wonder if Gabriel had left heaven before Castiel's creation, therefore, before he could corrupt the angel in any way.

"Those gods were… they were not the only gods within their religion. I am. Does everyone think I'm just being pedantic when I correct them on my capital G? I am the creator, destroyer and one God of my people. I am on the same level as your father, Allah, Shangdi and Akal Purakh. We're, if you like, the most powerful beings around. Lucifer has nothing on us. What he has done in the last couple of months is akin to tripping a couple of kids in a schoolyard, compared to what we have all done."

"So where are the others then? If you are all so powerful, why don't you help us?" Dean asked with a glare, which disappeared as soon as he saw the glare being aimed at him from Veles.

"Because the only one who actually is involved in this stupid little spat, is the Christian God. None of us actually have anything to do with it, including me. Which, I'd like to point out, hasn't stopped me from aiding you. I do not need to be here," Veles told them, and Dean quickly nodded his head and felt it prudent to take a step back and stand with Crowley in the 'naughty corner' as Veles had deemed it earlier.

"We're really grateful that you're helping us on this, really, we are. Does the fact that you are the only God in a monotheistic religion mean that you can defeat Lucifer then? Kill him?" Sam asked him, after having thrown a weak grin at Dean.

"No, I don't think I can kill him. I mean, I possibly could, but I generally tend to take the souls of those already passed. Should I kill people, then they are normally my own creation. And very rarely several millennia older than me. However, I can return him back to his cage. With those rings. And your help. He will not know who, or what, I am."

"How come? Cas did, right, Cas?" Sam asked, looking at the angel, who tilted his head, then nodded.

"I did. But he has only been a God for the past four centuries. Lucifer was in the cage long before his people had a true God to follow. Lucifer possibly knew he was not human, and was somewhat powerful, but not what he is and just how powerful he is," Castiel explained slowly, frowning somewhat as he spoke. Dean looked at him and then turned to gape at Veles.

"You're not… wait. You were  _created_? I mean, you didn't just… puff into being at the beginning of… everything?" Dean asked him and Crowley snorted in the background, grinning when everyone looked over at him.

"No, I didn't just 'puff into being'. I was human before I was changed. I don't know how old I am, to be honest. I stopped counting at two hundred and fifty, though Loki always claimed he knew. If you want, you can work it out for yourself. I was born in 1582," Veles told them with a shrug, then looked at his nails. "So do you want to do my plan or do you want to drug your brother with demon blood?"

"Your plan," Sam said quickly before anyone else could have any say in it, and Veles looked at him and smiled.

"Hoped you would say that! Now… I'm gonna take you into a separate room, have my wicked way with you and explain a couple of things… and I'm going to give you a choice. Follow me," Veles said with a smirk, then walked out of the room before anyone could say anything otherwise. Sam glanced over at Dean, then shrugged and followed behind Veles, nibbling on his lip slightly in nerves.

* * *

The end of the Apocalypse was… anti-climactic to Veles. And probably to everyone else involved. Veles expected  _something_  to happen.  _Something_  to go wrong. But… it all went to plan and Veles was… disappointed as he dragged Sam out of the way and shoved Lucifer into the cage.

Veles then just stood there and watched the hole close up, feeling drained and empty. He'd just shoved the person that killed Gabriel into hell. He had nothing else to do now. Sure he had told Sam and Dean that as a God he had responsibilities, and that was partly true. But… the whole free will clause meant that he let his creations do as they pleased and only stepped in when he felt they really needed him.

Which they didn't. Not at that moment. And… Ganesh had been killed. Gabriel had been killed. He truly had no one left.

Veles glanced to the side at where Sam and Dean were also staring at the place Lucifer had been sucked into. Sam… Veles had given him the choice to keep the magic Veles had given him, or let Veles take it back. Sam had told him to take it back and Veles, if only to himself, admitted to feel a tinge of disappointment at that. Once he took the magic back, Sam once more fell off his radar and he was alone again. Especially as he knew Castiel would wish to go back to his father, not that Veles blamed him. He just had an aching emptiness inside. But he knew it would go eventually.

"So, it's over. Done. I'll… I'll take that magic back, Sam, then I need to leave. I've got something I need to do. Castiel, do you wish to stay my angel, or take your chances with your true father?" Veles asked, turning to look at the angel that was standing next to Bobby.

"I think… I need to see what is going on in Heaven. Sorry, I am thankful for what you did for me, but… I think may be needed there," Castiel told him, and Veles nodded his head.

"I understand. Should any of you need me… use this. Whisper my name and I'll hear it. I can't promise I will be there straight away, but I will come to you," Veles told them, then he closed his eyes and pulled all the magic that belonged to him in the room, into himself. He heard both Sam and Castiel gasp as the magic rushed out of them into it's rightful owner.

Veles opened his eyes to see Bobby and Dean holding Sam and Castiel, all looking at him. Veles smiled at him, a little hollowly but no one was going to mention it, and then looked at Dean.

"Here, use it. If you truly need me. Use it. I need to go and find someone," Veles said, then disappeared in the room, leaving Dean, with Sam leaning on him heavily, looking at the object in his hand.

"That's…" Castiel trailed off, looking at Dean in shock.

"What… Since when did he have wings?" Dean asked, still looking at the object he had been given.

"He doesn't… it belonged to Gabriel," Castiel said softly, and Dean gaped at the silvery white feather in his hand.

"Huh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the events mentioned in this, did in fact happen for real, unless it is obvious that they didn't, like the Apocalypse at the end, and the Magical wars that were mentioned. Therefore, I felt no real need to tell you what year it was, as I didn't feel it was all that important. If you feel the burning need to know, then you can either work it out by googleing some of the events or working it out from the fact that Harry was born in 1582 and defeated Voldemort when he was seventeen, as per canon (*cough* If you ignore the actual year). *grin*
> 
> Oh! Veles is also a real god (yeah, lowercase g. *snicker*), all the information about Veles mentioned in this is somewhat accurate (for a god) except for the part I completely made up, which is that he is the only God of a certain religion. Yeah, that bit was made up, obviously. Heh. All information about any other gods mentioned in this was either already in my mind from past RE lessons, or it being forced into me by family members, or it was found online. I don't know too much about theology (and yes, that's what it is, calling it mythology is insulting to those that follow those religions. Lol) and what I do know is kinda… scattered. Heh. So if I've got anything wrong, I apologise. Tell me and I'll correct it.


End file.
